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
Toddington – St George Church, Bedfordshire
Location: St George Church Church Square Toddington Bedfordshire LU5 6QJ believed to have inscription: S/LT JOHN HOBBS MC/ 1ST ROYAL SCOTS/ DOW 22.6.15 Reported as existing on IWM. No marker found on initial inspection. Currently marked as lost Thanks to Scott Brand...
Nash church, – Lamphey, Pembrokeshire
David Arthur Legg Location: Nash church Church Hill Upper Nash Lamphey Pembrokeshire SA71 5PQ Details on Marker: 546544. SPR LEGGE A. R. 5/10 LONDON FIELD COY. R.E. 13-4-17 Type: GRU tags The cross appears to be a standard British Army Cross with GRU tags, the base...
Shenfield – St Mary the Virgin, Essex
Laurence George Henry Lee Location: St Mary the Virgin Shenfield Essex CM15 9AL Details on cross: GRU (front and back) No 11257 PTE L G H LEE (very faint) 6TH D C L I MAY 11TH 1917 Text type: Aluminium GRU tags Cross dimensions Shaft Height: 1350mm Cross beam width:...
Redbridge Museum – London
Herbert Musgrove Beck Location Redbridge Museum 2nd Floor Central Library Clements Road Ilford IG1 1EA Weblink Opening times: Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm, Saturdays 10am to 4pm, Free entry. We don't know if the cross is available to view at present. Biography...
Wickmere – St Andrews, Norfolk
HORATIO SPENCER WALPOLE God proved them and found them worthy for himself Location Church of St Andrew Wickmere Norfolk NR11 7JE The cross is located on wall in the right hand side of the Chancel of the church. Details on cross: Top of Centre Shaft In Loving Memory On...
Willesborough – St Mary the Virgin, Kent
Cecil Edmund Brookes Location: St. Mary the Virgin Bentley Road Willesborough Kent TN24 0LB Details on cross: GRU tags One at top of shaft GRU 3 metal tags on cross member, 6276 CPL C BROOKS 8 R W. KENTS. 26.5.1917 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU...
South Weald – St Peter’s Church, Essex
Christopher Cecil Tower Two crosses both for Tower, one appears to be a standard British Army Cross, the other a more personalised larger cross. Location: St Peter’s Church South Weald Essex CM14 5QJ Details on cross: IN MEMORY CAPTAIN C.C. Tower ESSEX YEOMANRY KILLED...
The Guards Museum – London
Henry Lancaster Nevill Dundas Location: The Guards Museum, Wellington Barracks, Birdcage Walk London SW1E 6HQ Weblink Details on cross: Top of shaft (inside a painted banner): In Memory Of GRU (tag) Cross Beam: 1ST BATTN CAPT H.L.N. DUNDAS MC SCOTS GUARDS...
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
