One Village....Two War Memorials.....

[Ezekial]

While tracing my ancestors who served in the great war, it dawned on me that in our village we have two WW1 memorials!!.....we have the main memorial on the village green, and then we also have a Methodist war memorial.....a lot of the names on the latter don't appear on the former, though there are a few that are mentioned on both!!!...and on Remembrance Sunday, only those on the village green memorial are remembered by the majority of the villagers......If the men all came from the same village, why didn't they just name all of them on one memorial?.....I don't know a lot about Methodism, so maybe there's a simple answer to my question.........Many Thanks.

[Guy Etchells]

It is very common that there is more than one war memorial for any area.
There may be war memorials in churches, schools, parks factories, even a building may stand as a war memorial.
In addition war memorial come in all shapes and sizes from cenotaphs and statues to plaques and stained glass windows. Many war memorials inside buildings are in the form of a board showing a list of names commemorated.

One must remember that there has never been an "official" war memorial by that I mean there is no compulsion on a community to commemorate either those who have served or those who died in war.
Memorials are inspired by volunteers who form together to raise funds and gather names, this might be by asking families of those who died to forward the name of their loved one or it could be a school remembering former pupils who gave their lives.

As a result war memorials were erected at various times some many years after the war(s) in question (for instance Ackworth in W.Yorkshire erected a war memorial to those who fell in the 1st & 2nd World Wars in 1999 (erected by the people and friends of Ackworth to mark the millennium)). There was an earlier war memorial erected by Ackworth Parish Council on 8th May 1985 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the ending of the 2nd World War.

It also means that any particular war memorial may not have a complete listing of those who fell.
There is also the possibility that some may feel a particular memorial is not fitting for their community or group and raise their own tribute.
Cheers
Guy

[ecksdochter]

Hello Ezekial,
     Likely the names listed on the Methodist Memorial were members of that church regardless of the area they lived in. The Memorial on the village green would have the names of local men whatever their religion. Have a closer look at the wording on the Memorials.
     I found the name of distant relatives on a beautiful stained glass window memorial in a village church. It is the only memorial in the parish and is worded "In Memory Of The Men Of This Church And Parish Who Gave Their Lives In The Great War 1914-1919"
               Regards,     Dod.
PS. One of those names is on 3 different memorials. Stained glass window of his home parish (above) As a serving Police Constable when he enlisted he is included on Bronze Memorial Tablets in Glasgow Cathedral. "In Memory Of The Men Of The Glasgow Police Who Gave Their lives In The War 1914-1919" He is also included on the memorial of the parish his wife lived in at the time of his death. (Died of wounds while a prisoner of war, 1916)
     

[Stephen Nulty]

My website at http://www.prescot-rollofhonour.info/memorials shows that there are 11 memorials in the town.

1 is the "main" civic memorial
1 x School memorial (Grammar School)
4 x Church Memorials (Parish Church, Methodist, URC + Church Institute)
3 x Place of memorials
1 x Sports Club Memorial
1 x "None of the above" (the 'Lane Ends' Memorial)

There are also a few memorial plaques in the parish church which are not included in the above

[newburychap]

Methodists did not organise in the same way as the CofE - they created 'circuits' which grouped churches together and kept common registers etc.  So your chapel is very likely to have commemorated Methodist losses from a much wider area than the village or parish.  Naturally they will not have included all lost villagers, just Methodists.

[Ezekial]

Many thanks for your replies.....it's appreciated.

[Jebber]

It is worth checking the exact wording on plaques in churches. I once queried why someone had listed a man on their tree as killed in in WW1 when I knew he had survived to marry and have a large family. I was sent a photo of the memorial, after looking at it closely, I pointed out that some of the names were a commemoration of those who had served and survived, not just those who had been killed.

Only last week, I looked at the newly released list of war dead commemorated on the Medway Archives website, when searching for some of my family members who I expected to find, I also found one who I knew married after the war and died in 1965, I notified them and also said that his records survive, his name was immediately removed.

This a lesson to always double check published information.

[seahall]

I went and also met Dr Colin R Chapman who was doing a talk on Eastcote-Pattishall
P.O.W. Camp which covered the years of WW1.

If I am quoting him correctly he said that War Memorials that say 1914-1918 are actually
in-correct as the Armistice was signed on 11 11 1918 but the official ending of the war
was at the Treaty of Versailles on 28 06 1919.

I learn something new every day.

Sandy