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
Southend-on-Sea – Central Museum, Essex.
SGT. W RADFORD Location: Southend-on-Sea Borough Council – Central Museum stores Victoria Avenue, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS2 6EW Website Details on cross: 59510 SGT. W RADFORD 103 FIELD COY R.E 14/5/16 Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): GRU TAGS Cross...
Lowgate – St. Marys Church, Hull
Unknown British Soldier Location: St. Marys Church, Lowgate, Hull HU1 1EJ Details on cross Unknown British Soldier Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): Punched metal tapes Cross dimensions (millimetres please) - Sorry, not measured Other information...
Beaurains – Commonwealth War Graves Commission, France
2LT Marcus Segal Location address Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 5-7 Rue Angèle Richard CS 10109 62217 Beaurains France. Details on cross (Text content of cross): In Memory 2LT Marcus Segal Then more text indecipherable Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags,...
Great Haywood – St Stephen’s Church, Staffordshire
Harrold Mould Location: St Stephen’s Church, Main Road, Great Haywood, Staffordshire, ST18 0GS Details on cross: G - R - U (on small tag at top of cross) 1 - A - 6 (on small tag just below tag at top of cross) 986 52 (top LH tag on cross...
Brookwood – CWGC stand, Surrey (from Beaurains France)
PTE. E. T. COOK Location : Canadian Records Building, Brookwood Military Cemetery Brookwood Surrey GU24 0JB Details on cross: A S C (top tag on cross beam) 30 3 1917 (middle tag on cross beam) M2/047644 . PTE. E. T. COOK. ...
Husthwaite – St Nicholas, North Yorkshire
WILLIAM EASTON Location address: St Nicholas, Low Street, Husthwaite, North Yorkshire YO61 4QB Details on cross (Text content of cross): In Memory of 181751 Spr EASTON Railway Operating Division Royal Engineers Died May 11 1918 28 years Text type (e.g. hand-written,...
Chigwell – All Saints Church, Essex
Lieutenant Claude Handley Trotter Location: All Saints Church, Romford Road, Chigwell Row, Essex IG7 4QD Details on cross: Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): N/A Text type (e.g. hand-written, GRU tags, carved): metal disc in centre of cross. Other...
Hinkley – Hinckley & District Museum, Leicestershire
Private William Payne Location: Hinckley & District Museum, Framework Knitters' Cottages, Lower Bond Street, Hinckley, Leicestershire, LE10 1QU. Website Details on cross : 4 GRU Tags. Unable to read from photograph (more information to follow) Text type...
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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
