Monday, November 26, 2012

Church Open Day 23rd December

Just wanted to tell anyone who doesn't know that St James Church is having an event on Sunday 23rd December at 3pm. It will be a chance to look around inside the church to see how the work is going and learn a bit more about the history of the building.  Weather permitting, I will be there with the plank from the memorial and my files about the men on it, I'm hoping I'll have the chance to chat to anyone interested in the project and wouldn't it be great if we could find some more relatives of the men named on the memorial?

There will also be a bit of carol singing, mince pies and mulled wine to get us all in the Christmas spirit. Should be very festive and fun.

It will also be very cold so if you're going to join us please wrap up warm!


Sunday, November 18, 2012

Posterity

This blog has been accepted by the UK Web Archive, that means that if something happens to the blog a copy of it will be available and freely accesible in the digital archive.
It takes a while to be processed but once it's done my research and the information about the memorial and the men on it will be preserved "for future generations"

If you have a website or blog which you think is worth preserving it's free and easy to apply on their website.

http://www.webarchive.org.uk/ukwa/

article about the memorial fragment

You can read an article about how the piece of the memorial was found, identified and returned to Liverpool here:

http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/barrowuponsoar/solving-the-mystery-of-barrows-p.html

Monday, November 12, 2012

The War Memorial Reredos and Roll of Honour Panel

Last week I got to see inside the church for the first time and saw the remains of the reredos in the chancel... I noticed that the carvings on it were identical to the war memorial and that shed some light on something that had been bothering me...

Recently I was sent a copy of a history of the church written in 1925 by Rev C.T. Dawson. In this the Rev. Dawson says that in 1920 'The War Memorial Reredos and Roll of Honour Panel were erected and dedicated.' In the same book he referred to my photo of the War Memorial as the Roll of Honour Panel.

I realised that I had been misunderstanding the inscription on the War Memorial - the reference to 'this reredos' is in fact to the full reredos in the church - the Roll of Honour Panel which I have been researching was not part of the reredos.

This doesn't affect my project but does significantly increase the impressiveness of the St James War Memorial. Here is a photo of the War Memorial Reredos from 1971, the Roll of Honour Panel was attached to the wall on the left, out of the photo. 


And here is a photo of what was left by about 1995:



Not too bad considering the amount of vandalism and fire-setting that had gone on over the years. The church was made more secure in 1998 and extensive work was carried out between 2000-2002 to get it ready to open again.
However, the next available photograph, from 2000 shows this:
Most of the detailing from the central panel has gone, including the top, and all 4 of the side panels are gone.
I can't find any reference to it being stolen or taken away for safekeeping so it's a bit of a mystery. I'm hoping to find out. The ogee arch in the middle was broken and later reattached so it's likely at least some of the decoration was lost to vandalism but it seems more likely to me that the large side-panels were removed and stored.

I'll update you when I know more!

Friday, November 9, 2012

BBC filming

For those of you who received my newsletter update, the filming with the BBC went well this week and I got to see inside the church for the first time (yay!)

I'm told that the piece won't be used before remembrance day now, I'll let you know when I hear anything.

If anyone would like to receive the newsletter please email me thewarmemorial@gmail.com they will be sent out whenever I have anything newsworthy so you won't be inundated with emails!

Amanda

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

I was on the radio!

For anyone interested in hearing me talking about the memorial, I was on the Radio Merseyside Breakfast Show yesterday. It's available on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days so you'll have to hurry!

Here's a link to the show, it's about 2h 25mins in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zwnpt

Rev. Short mentions an open day in the interview, that's going to be at St James' Church on 23rd December at 3pm with a carol concert and mince pies etc afterwards. If you're interested in having a look at the inside of the church, finding more out about its history or having a chat with me about the memorial project please come along (and wrap up warm, there's no heating!)

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Naval casualties on St James' Memorial


The table below details the men on the St James Memorial who died serving with the Merchant Navy, the Royal Navy or the Naval Reserve. The information given is the service they were in, their service number (if applicable) the ship or base they were on when they died and ther date of death.

Name
Surname
 
Service number
Ship/base
Date of death
Herbert Loyd
Hill
Merchant Navy
 
SS ARABIC
19/08/1915
Samuel J
Tonkies
Merchant Navy
 
SS ARTIST
27/01/1917
Owen
Owen
Merchant Navy
 
SS STUART PRINCE
22/03/1917
William
Elliott
Merchant Navy
 
SS HUNTSTRICK
08/06/1917
Ernest C
Benn
Merchant Navy
 
SS OLYMPIC
20/03/1918
James
Tonkies
Merchant Navy
 
SS BURUTU
03/10/1918
Richard W
Longmaid
Merchant Navy Reserve
763081
HMS ALCANTARA
29/02/1916
William
Beattie
Royal Navy
SS/107737
HOWE BN
04/06/1915
Thomas H
Bramwell
Royal Navy
233784
HMS INVINCIBLE
31/05/1916
James
Wilding
Royal Navy
SS/110409
HMS INDEFATIGABLE
31/05/1916
Matthew
Chisam
Royal Naval Reserve
2062D
HMS PRESIDENT III
24/09/1917


St James Memorial, the men of other regiments than the KLR

This table lists the men on the memorial who were in regiments other than the KLR. When there is a star by their regiment it means that they also served in the KLR.

The information given in the table is their name, number, battalion, regiment and date of death. They are organised chronologically by date of death.

Name
Surname
Regt’l number
Battalion
Regiment
Date of Death
John H
Fitzsimmons
2499
2nd
South Lancashire Regiment
07/01/1915
Edward
Burston
1544
2nd
South Lancashire Regiment
12/03/1915
Alfred J
Trafford
63668
86th Field Coy
Royal Engineers
01/11/1915
Charles
Stenson
16567
8th
East Lancashire Regiment
09/02/1916
 
 
 
 
 
 
George J
Mackarell
16027
8th
Yorks and Lancaster Regiment
01/07/1916
Allan
Dawson
2nd Lieutenant
22 Coy
Machine Gun Corps *
03/09/1916
Matthew
Jones
23830
4th
Grenadier Guards
25/09/1916
Charles
Schonewald
4525
1st/9th Bn
London Regiment (Queen Victoria Rifles)
01/10/1916
James
Llewellin
13831
1st Bn
Royal Welsh Fusiliers
26/02/1917
Samuel 
Butler
11394
2nd
West Riding Regt
03/05/1917
William J
Keam
M2/131577
596th M.T. Coy
Army Service Corps
16/07/1917
Hugh L
Loughlin
685742
293rd Army Bde
Royal Field Artillery
06/10/1917
Thomas S
Reay
Lieutenant
3rd Bn attd 10th Bn
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
01/03/1918
Thomas J
Prichard m.c.
Captain
1st Bn
Kings Own Royal Lancaster Regt
28/03/1918
Alfred
Mortenson
2nd Lieutenant
59th Coy
Machine Gun Corps *
15/04/1918
Donald
Tuke
6865
18th
Australian Infantry
09/08/1918
Robert D
Corran
431911
3rd Field Survey Coy
Royal Engineers *
14/09/1918
John
Simson
141288
1st
Canadian Infantry
01/10/1918
William J
Jago
92269
D Btty 3rd Bde
Royal Field Artillery
04/10/1918
George J
Mallison
23612
2nd
Leicestershire Regt
13/10/1918
Frank P
Lloyd
76928
14thBn
Welsh Regiment
20/10/1918
Herbert
 Ledger
35836
 
Army Ordnance Corps
27/10/1918
Herbert W R
Jeffes
211207
 
Royal Garrison Artillery
14/12/1918
Thomas
Hulme
184987
356th E and M Coy
Royal Engineers *
26/05/1919