Who's writing a Roll of Honour for your town/village for 100th ann

[rosewlsg]

Try contacting the Changi Museum http://changimuseum.com.sg/contact.htm

[johndavidswarbrick]

I am currently working on the men from Tonbridge, Kent who fell. There are some 340 plus [some dispute about the exact number] and I've now got information on most of them - as always it's the single men who came to the town after the 1911 census to work who are proving the most difficult to identify. I am working closely with a representative of the local branch of the British Legion as well as contacts with some of the local churches. The final information may well go on a website - but also several hard print copies to be kept locally.

Dave Swarbrick

[Dawley Jockey]

I started researching the fallen from the Dawley district (Shropshire) in 2005 and although published a first version of my book in 2008 I am still going.

It started with the 143 names on the memorial and has now climbed to 207 with more info being added, I think it will never stop but I feel proud that these brave men and a women will never be forgotten. Have also been given talks on my research and have 5 booked for this year.

Dave

[kellysgirl]

I found it perplexing that there were quite a few names missing from the memorials in the Chalfonts & Gerrards Cross and also a few names included who had no apparent connection with the villages. I suspect that in many cases war widows, having lost their breadwinners, moved out of the area, perhaps moving back with parents etc. Then when names and subscriptions were being gathered for memorials, these ladies wanted their men's names to be displayed on memorials near to them, so they might see them regularly.

I decided to interview many of our villages' senior citizens and invited them to put forward memories, photos, documents and artefacts for inclusion in a book I have just published; 'The Chalfonts and Gerrards Cross at War'. I decided however to describe the effects which conflict - all conflict from the Stone Age to the present day and including both world wars - has had on the people, the way of life and even the landscape of our district. I included the names and personal histories (as far as I could) of all the men who fell in both world wars in the appendices. I am hoping that our local schoolchildren, who are engaged in WW1 research projects, will be able to consult the book in local libraries and will understand that the First World War was not purely an overseas event but was something which affected and involved the real people of our community.

[Stephen Nulty]

I Started off in 1999 with 174 names off the Civic Memorial with the intention of writing a book.

Eventually, in 2008, I decided to go down the web site route for a couple of reasons. One was the cost of going to print and the second was my realisation that it was a never ending task. To date, I have updated the web site over 200 times and there are now 386 casualties recorded (including a new one added this week), plus 300 men who served and returned.

And so it goes......

[Moonraker]

I've noticed quite a few references in local newspapers to (usually) small groups, motivated by the centenary, researching the names on their local war memorials. In a couple of cases (including one in West Berkshire), I'm fairly sure that GWF members have been doing this for a while, though it's not usually possible to determine whether these worthies are involved in the latest research.

Moonraker

[Neil Mackenzie]

In conjunction with an old school mate of mine we have just completed the wording for a Book of Remembrance for our old school. Now Trinity School in Croydon it was Whitgift Middle School at the time of the Great War. We started with just over 100 names and have found another 25 or so to be included. The Book of Remembrance will just contain basic details - with more info to go on a website - and the intention is that it will be in the same format as the BoR produced for the WW2 casualties immediately after that war.

Neil

[Cymro]

I've been doing my home town(s) of Neath and Briton Ferry in South Wales. There are around 450 names on the principal memorial at the Gnoll, with a couple of hundred more if one incorporates the neighbouring mining villages of Resolven, Seven Sisters and Creunant. From the outset (I've been researching and writing for about 3 years) I've tried to reach out within the community for photographs and information. My family have lived there for a couple of generations and have worked in positions where they got to know everyone - Minister, Doctor, Teacher, so I've benefited from that immensely. It's also a relatively stable population and I've visited at least 3 houses where the sons/grandsons/grandaughters still live. History is pretty close to the surface. I've also set up exhibitions, talked to History Societies and Schools and set up a Facebook group, Ancestry etc... All these ventures have borne fruit to a greater of lesser extent, and as word spreads locally, I am contacted by families with photos and info. Of the casualties, I've got something approaching 150 original portrait photographs from families and not far off 50 groups of letters, diaries etc.

For those of us conducting such works I suspect the key question is when to publish. Speaking for myself, I am going to hold off and will seek to take advantage of the upsurge in interest in the conflict from the upcoming anniversary and the following major anniversaries (I think July 1 2016 will be an enormous event - (7th-12th July for Wales especially)), Hopefully this will kick up more information. That's the hope anyway!

Jon.

[Guest barmybaz]

I'm researching the men commemorated on the War Memorials in Dudley, Gornal and Sedgley.

Maybe a website one day...

Check booklets at Dudley Archives - they have them all

Check booklets at Dudley Archives - they have them all

[crackingbloke]

Hi, Just trying to push our effort a little, The Lost Sons of Wall Heath and Kingswinford. Runs to about 260 pages and was completed and published just before Christmas. Had an excellent review in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury and even a mention in The Times Military Matters. Each of the 108 men, more that half feature likenesses, from both World Wars has a short but quite detailed cradle to the grave account including as far as can be gleaned the event around their death. I hope you will appreciate that due to the limitations of space this has to be condensed, not to mention the small point of how to cover two world Wars in such a short book. The book is offered at £10 a copy which is the cost of production and more details can be found on our website

http://wall-heath-and-kingswinford-war-memorials-group.org/

Should you chose to buy a copy you will prolong the life of the website by about three weeks.

Very Best

Guy