Author Topic: Cpunting the War dead  (Read 1571 times)

Offline stoney

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Cpunting the War dead
« on: Monday 25 June 18 11:03 BST (UK) »
Any ideas how to determine how many people died in WW1 from a certain town? In Rugby, our knitting group have been asked by the local library to make poppies for a display. They don't seem to know of any numbers of those who were killed. Short of examining every memorial in the borough we are not sure how to determine the correct count. We're trying to contact our local history group but I thought I'd ask here for advice.
Thank you.
Beattie, Beveridge, Carson, Davidson, Hounam, Johnston,  Purdon, Rae, Stevenson, - Scotland.  Brown, Bulman, Cooke, Harding, Meyers, Osborne, Routledge - England

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #1 on: Monday 25 June 18 11:53 BST (UK) »
If you do a search on www.cwgc.org (Commonwealth War Graves Commission), under Find War Dead and enter "Rugby" in the "Additional Information" field and check the "First World War" box, you get 909 results.

The problem is that this includes rugby players, and only includes those entries where the town of Rugby is mentioned. :-\

BUT you can download the results into an Excel spreadsheet, and work on that ;D

https://www.cwgc.org/find/find-war-dead/results?war=1&additional=Rugby
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline groom

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #2 on: Monday 25 June 18 11:55 BST (UK) »
Is this any good?

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle/nostalgia/ww1-find-fallen-soldiers-coventry-7534244

The only problem is, as KG said, rugby players are included!
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Offline KGarrad

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #3 on: Monday 25 June 18 12:26 BST (UK) »
I looked at that, Jan ;D
But it only lists the first 100?

The CWGC extract also list former pupils of Rugby School, and the odd addresses of "Rugby Road"! :-\
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)


Offline Mart 'n' Al

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #4 on: Monday 25 June 18 12:54 BST (UK) »
Database searches need to get a lot more sophisticated as highlighted by this problem. It's 2018, we should have improved systems by now. I have the same problem researching the name Loughborough, and I get endless hits on Lord Loughborough, Loughborough Junction and the town itself, none of which have any connection with my interests.

For example companies offering database searches can easily give us a higher level of sophistication. For example if we search for rugby we should also be allowed to specify we do not want hits that include words such as score, players, and school in close proximity to the target word. The technology has existed for many years. The British Newspaper Archive certainly needs to add this feature.

Martin

Offline KGarrad

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #5 on: Monday 25 June 18 13:35 BST (UK) »
Downloading the data, and putting it into Excel, and then deleting those entries NOT from the town of Rugby isn't an arduous task?

If it was for myself (or I was being paid to do it!!) it would be an hour's worth of work; tops. ;D
Garrad (Suffolk, Essex, Somerset), Crocker (Somerset), Vanstone (Devon, Jersey), Sims (Wiltshire), Bridger (Kent)

Offline DavidJP

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #6 on: Monday 25 June 18 15:33 BST (UK) »
Hi,

Don't know if this will help or not but here is a link to the Rugby Borough Website which gives some info about the Rugby War Memorial: https://www.rugby.gov.uk/info/20046/parks_open_spaces_play_areas/102/war_memorial_gates_-_whitehall_rec


From the website:

"Rugby's war memorial takes the form of a pair of wrought iron gates with gold decoration, supported by two Portland stone piers with ornamental mountings.

The names of the men of Rugby who fell in the major wars of the twentieth century are inscribed on the piers."

It continues:

"After World War II the names of those who fell in that conflict were added to the piers. The World War I names include only those from the then small urban area of Rugby, as this was before borough status was obtained - hence some names will appear, for example, on the New Bilton Memorial in Croop Hill Cemetery but not on the town memorial."


Perhaps looking at these two places, ie the memorial gates at Whitehall Rec & the New Bilton Memorial at Croop Hill Cemetery might help to determine numbers?

Hope this helps.

Kind regards

David
Aitcheson, Aldred, Batty, Bauer, Bone, Brewer, Dean, Doyle, Durant, Fife, Finney, Gibson, Graham/Grayham, Hall, Harrison, Hersey, Hill, Holliss, Hudson, Hussey, Insley, Kelsey, King, Laver, Longmore, Luke, Mellor, Newman, North, Parker, Phillips, Porter, Read, Robinson, Rowel, Spink, Sproxton, Steer, Stevenson, Tanner, Witty/Whitty, Warburton, Wood.
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Offline Manchester Rambler

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #7 on: Monday 25 June 18 15:43 BST (UK) »
With the caveat that this is a fairly small sample, I have a database of 245 war dead from one particular area (taken principally from local war memorials): the relevant place name is included on CWGC's "additional information" only in 112 cases.  :-\

ANT: Nesbit, Potts; CHS: Gosling (Hazel Grove/Lymm), Hinton (Lymm), Johnson (Hazel Grove), Marsland (Hazel Grove), Massey (Daresbury), Sorton (Warmingham); LAN: Jackson, James, Potts (Manchester/Salford); MAY: Caulfield, Griffin (Leveelick); SAL: Goodwin, Johnson (Bridgnorth), Gregory (Wellington); STS: Goodwin, Gregory, Johnson (Wolverhampton); Hallett (Trysull); SOM: Dowding, James, Jones (Bath)

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Offline DavidJP

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Re: Cpunting the War dead
« Reply #8 on: Monday 25 June 18 15:50 BST (UK) »
Hi,

Don't know if this will help either, but a couple of pics of Rugby War Memorial on Hillmorton Road here:

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1971954

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/112471


They were apparently moved slightly from their original position in the 1970s.

Kind regards

David
Aitcheson, Aldred, Batty, Bauer, Bone, Brewer, Dean, Doyle, Durant, Fife, Finney, Gibson, Graham/Grayham, Hall, Harrison, Hersey, Hill, Holliss, Hudson, Hussey, Insley, Kelsey, King, Laver, Longmore, Luke, Mellor, Newman, North, Parker, Phillips, Porter, Read, Robinson, Rowel, Spink, Sproxton, Steer, Stevenson, Tanner, Witty/Whitty, Warburton, Wood.
(For more information on the above surnames please check the Surname Interest Table below.)