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
Market Overton – St Peter and St Pauls Church, Rutland
Lieut S Wing Location: St Peter and St Pauls Church, Teigh Road, Market Overton, Rutland, LE15 7PW Details on cross: In memory of Lieut S Wing 65th How’s Battery RFA Killed in Action 10/8/17 RIP Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Black paint Other...
Bisbrooke – St John the Baptist, Rutland
Lieut. Col, Percy Evans-Freke Location: St John the Baptist : Church Lane, Bisbrooke, Rutland, LE15 9EL Details on cross 1: RIP In memory of Lieut. Col, Percy Evans-Freke Leicestershire Yeomanry Killed on active service XIII.V.XV Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU...
Sandon – All Saints Church, Staffordshire
MAJOR, THE HON.R.N.D.RYDER Location address: North wall of the Chancel in All Saints Church, Church Lane, Sandon, Staffordshire, ST18 0DB Details on cross: IN (on top of shaft) LOVING (LH top brace) MEMORY (RH top brace) OF (on top of shaft)...
Priors Hardwick – Church of St Mary, Warwickshire
LIEUT-COLONEL ARTHUR. EDMUND THURSBY - BOER WAR Location: Church of St Mary,Priors Hardwick, Warwickshire, CV47 7SN Details on cross: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF Surrounding IHS christogram LEIUT.-COLONEL. ARTHUR. EDMUND. THURSBY. 5th . ROYAL....
Thornton – St Michael & All Angels, Buckinghamshire
LIEUT. P. A. D. JACKSON & BRIG GEN SIR W. A. I. KAY BART. C.M.G. D S.O. Location: St Michael & All Angels, Thornton, Buckinghamshire, MK17 0HH LIEUT. P. A. D. JACKSON Details on cross: IN LOVING MEMORY OF LIEUT. P. A. D. JACKSON...
Martlesham – Martlesham Heath Aviation Society, Suffolk
2-Lieut W L Lovell Location: Martlesham Heath Aviation Society, Martlesham, Ipswich IP5 3UZ Details on cross: GRU A-8 2-Lieut W L Lovell R.W. Kent Regt. Attd. R.F.C Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU tags Other information...
Leatherhead – St Mary & St Nicholas, Surrey
PTE. F.C.B. COWARD Location address: Leatherhead Parish Church (St Mary & St Nicholas), Church Road, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8BD Details on cross: Top: I.W.G.C Crossbeam: 510102. PTE. F.C.B. COWARD, A Coy. 1st/14th Bn., London 1/4. LONDON. 29.8.18...
Armagh – Regimental Museum, Armagh
J.S.M. LENOX CONYNGHAM Location: Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum, Regimental Museum, Sovereign House, The Mall, Armagh, BT61 9DL Details on cross: On the upper shaft: RIP On the cross beam: Lieut Col J.S.M. LENOX CONYNGHAM On lower shaft in a stylised ribbon Sept 3rd...
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
