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
Sutton in the Isle – St Andrew, Cambridgeshire
John Edward Marshall Location: St Andrews Church, High Street, Sutton, Cambridgeshire CB6 2RB Details on Cross RIP IN L.....NG MEMORY OF/ CAPT (AIN) J.E. MARSHALL 1ST D.C.L.I. KILLED IN ACTION 30.3.15. From CWGC MARSHALL, JOHN EDWARD Rank: Captain Date of Death:...
Ellington – All Saints, Cambridgeshire
Rupert Edwin Penfold Grimley Location: All Saints Church, Church Lane, Ellington, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, PE28 0AU Details on Cross: RUPERT EDWIN PENFOLD GRIMLEY 14th BATT. LONDON ATT. 7th BATT. GORDON HIGHLANDERS Pte 313035 DOW...
Sutton, St Michael and All Angels Church, Cambridgeshire
Lawrence Oliphant Graeme Location: St Michael and All Angels Church, Nene Way, Sutton, Peterborough, PE5 7XD Details on Cross: In Memory of Lt Colonel L.O/ Graeme CMC 1st Q O Cameron Highrs Killed in action 10.3.1916 Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Oliphant Graeme...
Wisbech – St Peter and St Pauls Church, Cambridgeshire
Hugh Anthony Rupert Crookham Location: St Peter and St Pauls Church, Church Terrace, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire PE13 1BL Details on Cross: 41 (carved into the top of the cross) LIEUT. H.A.R. CROOKHAM, 1ST CAMBRIDGESHIRES, DIED 3RD AUGUST 1915 I.W.G.C. Crookham left...
Lekmelm, Ullapool, Ross-shire
Andrew Knowles Fraser Location: Private family graveyard, Lekmelm, Ullapool, In Ross-shire, Scotland. My Great Uncle Andrew Knowles Fraser MC. in a family graveyard at Lekmelm, near Ullapool, In Ross-shire Scotland. I had no idea that the wooden cross was anything...
West Harling – All Saints, Norfolk
George Colborne Nugent Location: All Saints church, West Harling, Norfolk, England, NR16 2SE Details on Cross: RIP Brigadier General G C Nugent MVO Killed in action 31.5.1915 Cross appears to have been whitewashed, lettering is in black pain, some damage to the...
Dowdeswell – St Michael, Gloucestershire
Richard Coore Blagrove (believed to be) Location: St Michaels church, Dowdeswell, Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England, GL54 4LX Details on Cross IN MEMORY OF LIEUT AND ADJT RC BLAGROVE C BATT DUKE OF CORNWALL'S LIGHT INFANTRY KILLED IN ACTION August 12th 1915 The...
Hursley, All Saints, Hampshire
Denis George Wyldbore Hewitt V.C Location: All Saints, Hursley, Hampshire, SO21 2JB Dennis has no known grave. Details on Cross Peace Perfect peace DGW Hewitt VC - ??th hants 31.7.17 Killed in Action On Plaque IN PROUD AND LOVING MEMORY OF/ DENIS GEORGE WYLDBORE...
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
