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
Tunbridge Wells – St.Barnabas, Kent
James Gabriel Lancaster Ranking Location: St.Barnabas, Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 2RH Details on cross: CAPTAIN. J.G.L RANKING POLITICAL DEPT JULY 12 1915 Underneath this is a metal plaque which is unreadable. Church goer has said he has transcription of text and I will...
Suffolk Regiment Museum, Bury St Edmunds
Noel Herbert Tovell Location: Suffolk Regiment Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 3 RN Details on cross: At top of cross – metal plate stamped ‘GRU’ At intersection of cross – 3 metal plates stamped: PTE N H TOVELL 2ND ROYAL FUS 14TH OCT 1918 Text type (e.g....
Abbots Leigh – Holy Trinity Church, Bristol
STANLEY HERBERT HALL & J W GITTINGS Location: Holy Trinity Church, Church Road, Abbots Leigh, Bristol, BS8 3QT Cross 1 25927 Lance Corporal Stanley Herbert Hill, 7th Bn., Somerset Light Infantry Details on cross: Inscription (on shaft, beam, and on circle plate):...
Cheltenham – St Stephens church, Gloucestershire
SYDNEY VYVYAN TREVENEN & Kenneth Algernon BROOKE-MURRAY Location: St Stephens Church, St Stephens Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL51 3AB Cross 1 Details on Cross Capt S. V. Trevenen MC, 40th Brigade RFA, 10.6.18. This cross is mounted on the left hand wall of...
Milford Haven – St Katherine & St Peter’s Church, Pembrokeshire
9 crosses (7 recorded) Location: St Katherine & St Peter’s Church, Hamilton Terrace, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, SA73 3JU St Katherine & St Peter’s Church serves as the Parish Church for Milford Haven and contains a wide range of memorials to local...
Higher Bebington – Christ Church, Wirral Cheshire.
Unknown British Soldier Location: Christ Church, Kings Road, Higher Bebington, Wirral CH63 8LX The cross is prominently displayed near the front of the church on the right hand side as you face the altar. The cross commemorates an unknown British soldier. Details on...
Gresford – All Saints Church, Wrexham
Two brothers - RALPH BONFOY ROOPER & William Victor Trevor ROOPER Location: All Saints Church, The Green, Gresford, Wrexham, North Wales LL12 8RG Cross 1 Details on cross: At the top of the cross there is attached a small cross of the crucifixion. There is a...
Birtley – St Giles, Northumberland
Bertram Allgood Location: St Giles, Birtley Near Wark, Northumberland, NE48 3HW Details on cross: This is a plain wood cross with a wood plate mounted on the front which carries the inscription:- (curved) Sacred to the Memory of Capt B Allgood 1st Royal Irish Rifles...
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
