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
Uckfield – Snatts Road Cemetery Chapel, East Sussex
Three or possibly four markers Location (3 markers believed to be) Bridge Cottage Heritage Centre, High Street, Uckfield, TN22 1AZ Multiple markers at least two crosses and Star of David Plaque recorded in the 1980s. Location: Uckfield - Snatts Road Cemetery Chapel,...
Melcombe Horsey – St Andrew’s Church, Dorset
Richard Groves Location: St Andrew's Church, Melcombe Horsey (also known as Melcombe Bingham), Dorset DT2 7PZ Details on cross: LIEUT R. GROVES 11TH NOTTS AND DERBYS 24TH OCTOBER 1917 No 2247 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU tags Cross dimensions...
Lydham – Holy Trinity, Shropshire
Frederick Green, William Herbert Rogers and Edward Evan Jones There are three crosses located in the vestry at Holy Trinity, Lydham. The large grave marker of Driver Frederick Green is mounted on the wall, the other two crosses are propped up against the wall....
Rochford – St Andrew’s Church, Essex
John Wilton Sheridan Location: St Andrew's Church Rochford Essex, S 4 1NW An interesting propeller cross, native made rather than returned. Details on Cross IN MEMORY OF LT JOHN WILTON SHERIDAN CAMERON HIGHLANDERS & ROYAL AIR FORCE AGED 29 KILLED 27th SEPT. 1918...
Bexwell, St Mary’s Church, Norfolk
Charles Dean Prangley Location: St Mary's Church, Bexwell, Norfolk Details on cross: Top of cross – small GRU metal plate Below GRU plate, a large black-painted ‘X’ Across arm of cross - 2nd Lieutenant C D Prangley 1st Lincolnshire Regt On remaining three parts of...
Little Thurlow – St Peter’s Church, Suffolk
William Harold Ryder Location: St Peter’s Church Location: Little Thurlow, Suffolk, CB9 7JQ Details on cross: Lieut. W.H. Ryder. Yorks Hussars & RFC. Killed in Flying Accident July 6th 1917 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Painted on wooden boss...
Holywell Cemetery – Oxfordshire
Ronald William Poulton Palmer Location: St. Cross Church, St Cross Church Rd, City Centre, Oxford OX1 3TP From his Wikipedia entry (7/2/2017) Ronald 'Ronnie' William Poulton (later sometimes Poulton-Palmer) (12 September 1889 – 5 May 1915) was an English rugby union...
Llanbedr-Y-Cennin (St. Peter) Churchyard, Caernarvonshire
ALEXANDER MURRAY CRAIGMILE Location: St. Peter’s, Llanbedr y Cennin, LL32 8UY A curious Celtic-style cross. It appears from the photograph that the type may be computer cut as it appears to have been squashed to fit on the upright. This could be a later addition to...
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
