THE PROJECT
THE HISTORY
THE SURVEY
LOCATIONS
Update
Hello all, this project is still open but is currently hibernating. We would love to complete it, but this is very dependent on time and whether we can secure additional funding to pursue it.
Thanks to everyone who has been involved, including those who still are, and all those who visit and comment or share, it has so far been a terrific success, we hope to extend that in the future.
In the meantime we fully intend to keep the site live in its current form, and are still taking any info you have with a view to one day finishing the database as time allows.
Nick & Tim. April 2023.
Recent marker reports
Taunton – Museum of Somerset, Somerset
Captain C C Maud DSO 1st Somerset Light Infantry, killed in action at Ploegsteert, December 1914. Location: Museum of Somerset, Taunton, Somerset Details on Cross: Text in black paint IN LOVING MEMORY OF CAPT.C.C.MAUD DSO 1st SOMERSET. L.I. KILLED ACTION 19.12.14...
Spexhall – St Peter, Suffolk
Lt. John Dutton Calvert, the Rifle Brigade, went to France 20th December 1914, killed in action seven weeks later on 15th February 1915 aged 23. He is buried at Dickebusch Old Military Cemetery, near Ieper in Belgium. He was the son of Mr Edmund Percy and The Hon Mrs...
Cleckheaton – Whitechapel, Yorkshire
Luke Mallinson Tetlow Location: Whitechapel Church Address: Whitechapel Road, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, Postcode: BD19 6HY Details on Cross: RIP IN LOVING MEMORY OF LIEUT L M TETLOW, 7th DUKE OF WELL’S REGT, KILLED IN ACTION 29.5.15 Text type: Black paint Cross...
Melton – St Andrews Old Church, Suffolk
The church is maintained by the Melton Old Church Society, Open days during the year usually on a Sunday afternoon between 14:00 and 17:00. https://www.facebook.com/meltonoldchurch/ - details of open days and events. History of the church here on Simon Knott's website...
Lanhydrock, St Hydrock, Cornwall
Location: St Hydroc Town/village: Lanhydrock County: Cornwall Postcode: PL31 2AB Details on cross: Captain The Honorable T.C. Agar Robartes Coldstream Guards Who died of wounds Sept 30th 1915 of Wounds received (extra line of text on shaft unreadable) Text type: Black...
Salisbury Cathedral – Wiltshire
Seven Crosses This survey is yet to be completed, If you are available and would like to help please complete the survey forms available here. All except one of the crosses are alleged to belong to men who lived in the Cathedral Close. Capt. C. B. M. Hodgson 2/24th....
London – Firepower (RA Museum), Woolwich.
Location: Town/village: Woolwich County: London Postcode: SE18 6EF Details on cross: R.I.P. No. 10366 Sgt FORD G.R. Text type: Hand Painted onto wood. Cross dimensions (millimetres please): Unobtainable Other information Mounting to wall: In Display Detailing:...
St Mary the Virgin, Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire
Location: St Mary the Virgin Church Town/village: Hawkesbury County: Gloucestershire Postcode: GL9 1BN Details on cross: Small metal GRU plaque and button. CAPT JB JENKINSON RIFLE BRIGADE Text type: Capitals, serif type, carved Cross dimensions: Shaft height: unknown...
On the blog
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About the project
Wooden Battlefield Crosses and grave markers exist all across Great Britain and indeed across the world. You can find them in churches, memorial halls, chapels, museums and private dwellings. Although various lists exist there is no definitive study of them; the available information is often buried in collections of other memorials. These are deeply personal connections with the people involved in the conflict and form a direct link to the families, loved ones and communities who were left behind.
The aim of this project is to try and provide an online resource which creates a place to find the information about these curious objects, where they exist, how to access them and what they meant a century ago, how they continue to be part of the communities they still exist in and how people continue to engage and respond to them as a link the link to First World War.
Ultimately the intention is to list every single battlefield cross or wooden grave marker returned from the lines in Europe to Great Britain after the war ended. The website will hopefully provide a resource that will give everyone access to information on as many of the locations and as much detail as possible about the stories surrounding the people whose graves they marked in France and their symbolic return to the people they left behind.
We need your help…
You can send us information on your local wooden crosses and battlefield markers, whether it be your own photos, photos you have permission to use from a local archive, details of the building and how the marker has become part of the story of it. We also need your research on the soldiers, their life and service, their families, the incidents surrounding their death and the eventual return of the grave marker to Britain and back to the community where the person came from.
We have provided an easy guide to help you to survey, photograph and research these sites and a rough but growing list of locations which we will hopefully be building on as more information comes to light. We will also be putting together an online guide looking at how and where to research the stories of the men these crosses are named for and how you might be able to look into the story behind them to build an online collection which everyone can use to explore these fascinating memorials.
Contact us
Have you done a survey or do you fancy having a go at one? Maybe you aren’t sure what to do or maybe you have already completed some research on a battlefield cross you’d like to add to the project or share via the website.
Perhaps you think you may have something nobody has seen in nearly a century in your loft or shed? Let us know.
Please send us an email to info@thereturned.co.uk
