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
Brackley – Magdalen College School
Four crosses inside the chapel of Magdalen College School, Brackley, L-R: 2Lt A H B Stace 25 Sqn RAF; Pvt A H Aldous 2/4 Londons; his brother Sgt F L Aldous 54 Canadian Infantry Bn; 2Lt W J Lidsey 16 Sqn RFC (shot down by the Red Baron) Location: Magdalen College...
Bedford Old cemetery chapel – Bedfordshire
JOHN ALGERNON LEVENTHORPE Location: (believed to be) Bedford Old Cemetery Chapel Foster Hill Road Cemetery Bedford Bedfordshire Website Details on Cross: JOHN ALGERNON LEVENTHORPE 56(?) Coy RE Killed in action NEAR KEMMEL 23-1-1915 A curious cross. It appears to be...
Liverpool Anglican Cathedral
Unknown British Soldier Presented to the cathedral in a special ceremony on July 16th 1931 by Sir Fabian Ware. Location: Liverpool Anglican Cathedral St James Mount, Liverpool Merseyside L1 7Az Details on cross: Metal GRU Tag at top of shaft I.W.G.C. further down the...
St Mary and Holy Trinity Church Bow, London
13 men of the 17th London Regiment (Tower Hamlets Rifles) Location: St Mary and Holy Trinity Church Bow, 230 Bow Road, Bow, London E3 3AH Details on cross: GRU Stamps read: Memor[ial] No.3 In Memory Of The N.C.O.s & Men Of The 17TH London Regiment Att’d...
Norton in Hales – St Chads, Shropshire
Henry George Coulson Colville (Previously listed as an unknown by IWM) Location: St Chads Main Road, Norton in Hales Shropshire TR9 4AT The cross is located high on the wall at the rear of the church on the left hand side as you face the altar. The cross is mounted...
Down County Museum – County Down, NI
John Malone Location: Down County Museum, The Mall, Downpatrick, County Down, BT30 6AH Website Details on the Cross GRU Cartouche at head. IN MEMORY OF SAPPER JOHN MALONE REG No 64005 121ST FIELD COMPANY R.E. KILLED IN ACTION MAY 23 1916 Text type: GRU tag and carved...
Stanway – Church of St Peter, Gloucestershire
Yvo (or Ivo) Alan Charteris Location Church of St Peter, Stanway, Gloucestershire, GL54 5PQ The cross is located inside the Cotswold stone church on the right wall of the nave just before the chancel Details on cross: Top of Centre Shaft G.R.U Just above cross beam on...
St Mary’s Calne and Bowood House, Wiltshire
Lord Charles Mercer-Nairne We surveyed the two crosses in Calne, Wiltshire in October, and were very surprised to find both crosses related to the same man, Major Lord Charles Mercer-Nairne. We unearthed some absolute historical gold evidence about one of these...
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
