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
Carlton On Trent – St Mary the Virgin, Nottingham
George Brenton Laurie Location: St Mary the Virgin Church, Church Lane, Carlton On Trent, Nottinghamshire NG23 6NN. Details on Cross: GRU XXXXXXXX CROSS (indeciperable text) LIEUT COL G B LAURIE ROYAL IRISH RIFLES Dimensions: Height 1125MM, Width 375MM With Plaque:...
Ossington – Holy Rood Church, Nottinghamshire
Harry Holt Originally two crosses, one had to be destroyed because of woodworm. Location: Holy Rood Church, Ossington, Newark, Nottinghamshire NG23 6LH Details on Cross: R.I.P 28802 PTE H HOLT 7TH SHERWOOD FORESTERS KILLED IN ACTION 22.2.18 Incomplete data. Other...
The Royal Scots Regimental Museum, Edinburgh.
James Fleming Location: The Royal Scots Museum, The Castle, Edinburgh EH1 2YT Weblink Details on Cross: Top of upright GRU Tag, text unreadable on photo. 351337 L/CPL. J. FLEMING 11TH R.S. 14-10-18 Text: GRU Tags Displayed cross in a museum environment. No details or...
Twineham – St. Peter’s Church, West Sussex
Eric Horace Comber-Taylor Incomplete Report Location: St Peter's Church, Twineham Lane, Twineham, West Sussex, RH17 5NR Details on Cross RIP CAPTAIN E H Comber Taylor RAF KILLED IN ACTION 16/6/18 Plaque reads: IN MEMORY OF AN ONLY SON/ CAPTAIN ERIC HORACE...
Ormskirk – St Peter and St Paul, Lancashire
Unknown British Soldier Location: St Peter and St Paul Church Street, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 3AJ The cross is displayed in the Derby Chapel which became the War Memorial Chapel after the Great War. The cross commemorates an unknown British soldier and is positioned...
Cowden – St.Mary Magdalene Church, Kent
William Thomas Ashby Location: St.Mary Magdalene Church, Cowden, Kent, TN8 7JE Details on cross: Carved on Cross: SOLD ASHBY 7BRW.KENT.R (On Cross-section) Cross 6.5.17 (On down section of cross) Metal GRU tags with stamped tags: 5238 PTE.W. Ashby. (First tag under...
Brookwood Cemetery, Guards Chapel – Pirbright Army Camp
Douglas Harvey (Great War), Merton Beckwith-Smith (Second World War), 30 officers 774 NCOs & men of the Grenadier Guards (Great War). Falkland Islands Cross 1982 (Falklands War) Location: Brookwood Cemetery (Guards Chapel), Pirbright Army Camp, Surrey Sincere...
Alberbury – St Michael & All Angels, Shropshire
John Burgh Talbot Leighton Location: St Michael & All Angels, Alberbury, Shropshire SY5 9AH (Off B4393) The cross is displayed in the Loton Chapel (right side transept). It is a four bladed propeller cross set high on the back wall. Details on cross: Major John...
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
