WW1: Remembering each and every one

I’ve written before about my local ancestors William Watson (from Stoke) and Harry Stratford (from St. Mary Hoo), who were killed during the First World War.

Next month will be the centenary of the end of the First World War (Armistice). You’ve probably already heard about many activities, events and commemorations taking place across the country.

The Royal British Legion, in partnership with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has developed something called Every One Remembered, a project to individually commemorate over one million Commonwealth service men and women who were killed during the First World War. The losses were felt in almost every town and village in the UK and throughout what was then the British Empire.

Every One Remembered is an opportunity for you to be part of a great collective act of Remembrance.

I believe the project is only accessible online, so if you’re not online you’ll need to enlist the help of a friend or family member. Then visit the dedicated website where you can choose to commemorate someone you know - a relative or person on your local war memorial - or commemorate someone randomly selected for you. There is also an optional opportunity for you to make a donation to support the Royal British Legion’s work with the Armed Forces community.

I’ve added an entry for my ancestor William Stephen Watson. He lived in Lower Stoke on the Hoo Peninsula. It only took a few minutes to complete the entry. I couldn’t add a photo of William as I don’t have one. I only have a brief description of him on his military record - I sadly don’t know what he looked like.

If you’d like to share photos and stories about any local ancestors who fought in the First World War please get in touch using the contact panel on the right.
 

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Yesterday I wrote about my visit to northern France to visit the graves of my ancestors William Watson and Harry Stratford. I first learnt about their involvement in the Great War, and their deaths, when I visited the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Upper Stoke last year, as part of a local history walk led by Alan Marshall.

Both their names were listed, along with sixteen others, on a plaque (pictured below) commemorating those from the Parish who had given their lives in the service of King and country.

Wondering how I might go about locating their graves, I thought how impossible that was likely to be given the hundreds of thousands who died in northern France and Belgium between 1914-1918. But after a bit of digging on various genealogy websites, I managed to track down war records for both William and Harry, detailing personal information and their service history, including the date of their deaths.

I was then able to use the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to track down the location of William’s grave and the place where Harry’s name is listed amongst tens of thousands who have no known grave.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission was established by Royal Charter in 1917.  It pays tribute to the 1.7 million men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars by maintaining graves and memorials across the world, the bulk of which are in northern France and Belgium.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website doesn’t just give the detail of servicemen’s graves, but also provides quite a lot of very specific information about the individual battles in which these young men died.

Take a look at the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission by clicking here. Be sure to navigate to the ‘debt of honour’ page where you can search for specific ancestors. You can also visit the very useful website of the War Graves Photographic Project by clicking here - another excellent resource!
 

Remembrance, 11-11-11

I’ve mentioned my family history research a few times on this site, and this time last year I wrote about two recently identified relatives who both lived on the Hoo Peninsula and died in the Great War.

Over the last year I’ve been researching their lives and thinking about the sacrifice they made on behalf of their country, and how interesting it would be to visit their final resting places in France. So, earlier this week, I went off to Arras in northern France for a couple of days.

I headed for Queen’s Cemetery, just outside the small village of Bucquoy, south west of Arras. This is where William Watson, who was my great grandfather’s nephew, is buried. William was born in Lower Stoke and was just 21 when he was killed on 17 February 1917, serving with the Royal Marine Light Infantry. This was during the ‘Battle of Miraumont’, one of the many long forgotten battles fought over a few hundred yards of muddy farmland, in a war which led to the deaths of such unimaginable numbers of young men.



William’s grave is marked by one of the tens of thousands of smart headstones caringly maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. His cousin Harry Stratford’s name doesn’t appear on its own headstone anywhere. He was 24 when he was killed, and his name is listed on the Arras Memorial, together with those of 35,941 other servicemen of the British Empire who have no known grave. The names are listed by regiment, in Harry’s case the Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment), rather than rank. In the sacrifice of death, all ranks are equal.

A plaque outside the Arras Memorial informs visitors rather coldly about 159,000 commonwealth soldiers dying there in just 39 days during the spring of 1917. But when seeing so many names, carved neatly in stone, it really makes you appreciate the huge loss of life that took place during the 1914-18 war. As do the 54,896 names listed on the Menin Gate in Ypres and the 73,367 listed on the huge memorial at Thiepval, a few miles south of Bucquoy.

Menin Gate Memorial

 Menin Gate Memorial

Thiepval Memorial

These memorials, and the hundreds of lovingly maintained graveyards dotted around northern France and Flanders, mean that the sacrifice of so many will never be forgotten.