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
South Wingfield – All Saints Church, Derbyshire
UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER Location address: Inside All Saints Church, Holme Lane, South Wingfield, Derbyshire, DE55 7NY Details on cross: G R U (at top of shaft) UNKNOWN BRITISH SOLDIER (on cross beam) Text type: characters embossed on alloy tape nailed to wood (GRU...
Leicester – Museum of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, Leicestershire
CAPTAIN CHARLES COLWYN ROLPH Location address : Museum of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment Newarke Houses Museum Leicester LE2 7BY Details on cross (Text content of cross): 5 GRU tags 1 ? 2 ? 3 - CAPT C ROLPH 4 ? 5 - 15.10.15 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags,...
Finmere – St. Michael and All Angels, Oxfordshire
Captain Cholmeley Symes-Thompson Location address: St. Michael and All Angels : Water Stratford Road, Finmere, Oxfordshire, MK18 4AT Details on cross: Cholmley Symes-Thompson 2nd Grenadier Guards Killed in Action November 17 1914 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU...
Leicester – Private Address
Able Seaman H. W. Henstock Cross remains within the family, Private address, Leicester. Details on cross (Text content of cross): In Loving memory of dear Walter Original Cross from France Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Hand Painted Cross dimensions...
Marston St Lawrence – Northamptonshire
Captain Geoffrey V S Bowlby and Lieut Lionel S Bowlby St Lawrence, Marston St Lawrence, Northamptonshire, OX17 2DA Captain G V S Bowlby Details on cross (Text content of cross): Captain G V S Bowlby Royal Horse Guards 13-5-15 Memorial Cross Text type...
Pudsey – Pudsey Cemetery, West Yorkshire
Capt Robert Salter Location address: Pudsey Cemetery, Cemetery Road Pudsey Metropolitan Borough of Leeds West Yorkshire England LS28 7HH Details on cross : Not possible to see as protected by granite case. Cross dimensions (millimetres please)...
Barmston – All Saints, East Riding of Yorkshire
Edward Boynton Pedder Location address: All Saints Sands Lane, Barmston, East Riding of Yorkshire, YO25 8PR Details on cross : In memory of 2nd L’ E Pedder QMO. 18th Hussars RIP Killed in Action January 19th 1916 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved):...
Hoo – St. Werburgh Church, Kent
Pte L.C.Blackman Location address (including church name, county and postcode): St. Werburgh Church, Church Street, Hoo, Rochester, Kent, ME3 9AL Details on cross (Text content of cross): A.I.F 5559.Pte L.C.Blackman 18th BN. K.I.A 7. 7. 18. Text type (e.g....
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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
