ProgressNovember 2015 Even though we appear to have investigated almost all Buckinghamshire’s WWI memorials, we see two benefits. Firstly, sorry for depriving you of our ‘Progress’. No excuses really, except that our focus of attention has turned on the increasing number of casualties’ photographs – which is now just the direction we would like to turn to. Clint Lawson is revisiting his 40K ROH records, checking individual entries. It may take him some time to complete this arduous task. December 2014 Sorry for depriving you of our ‘Progress’. No excuses really, except that our focus of attention has turned on the increasing number of casualties’ photographs – which is now just the direction we would like to turn to. Clint Lawson is revisiting his 40K ROH records checking individual entries. It may take him some time to complete this arduous task. May 2014 You might imagine that now we have covered almost all the War Memorials in Buckinghamshire our work is done. But far from it, it seems! Recently our co-worker Clint Lawson has included his Roll of Honour as a separate database under the Buckinghamshire Remembers ‘umbrella’. His database contains the details of source references to about 44000 records – not only those Bucks casualties who lost their lives but also those who survived. These references are taken from reports in local Bucks newspapers. Clint is now re-checking all his records. As he completes each section of records his cumulative database will be re-published. Even though the Buckinghamshire Remembers project is almost complete in so far as almost every Buckinghamshire war memorial has been studied in depth, the rate at which additional information and photographs are being sent to us is accelerating. To date we have received information from 440 enthusiastic site visitors and we mention them under Acknowledgements. So if you visit our website but cannot find what you expect then do come back at a later date to investigate what changes have been made. One of the most exciting aspects of our work has been the rapidly growing collection of photographs of casualties. Please contact us using the Contact Us menu button to let us know if you have additional photographs. We also hope that we can help those groups who, mindful of the centenary of the outbreak of war, are currently preparing detailed studies of the casualties in their Bucks locality. It is a shock to us to realise that we haven’t written a Progress Report since August 2011! August 2011 Perhaps the most dramatic way of indicating our progress is by showing you the parishes we have visited in Buckinghamshire – illustrated in red.
We must now decide whether we follow through the many casualties who are mentioned in local newspapers but for one reason or another were left off the parish War Memorial. Even if casualties were listed on the War Memorial, the newspaper report could provide us with additional information. As in previous years, we exhibited our work at the Buckinghamshire Family History Society Open Day in July and we were gratified by the number of visitors who approached us – either we could help them, or they could help us by way of photographs, etc. We are now working on the photos and information given to us by the many interesting people that we met. On 1 October we will have a stand at the Annual Conference of the Buckinghamshire Local History Network at RAF Halton. This year the theme is a military one. We would like to acknowledge with much thanks a grant from The Buckinghamshire Military Museum Trust. February 2011 The grant from the Buckinghamshire County Council (Community Leaders’ Fund) to support our work has almost come to an end so we are most grateful to the Skipton Building Society (who have just opened a new branch in Wendover) for coming to our aid with a generous contribution. We have recently had an excellent collaboration with Lesley Perry, exchanging information relating to the casualties of Chesham and district. Our attention has now turned to Milton Keynes and points further to the north east. We have been delighted to discover some of the old villages from which Milton Keynes grew – Great Linford, Shenley, Willen. January 2011 We have just realised that it is half a year since we told you of our progress. But we have been beavering away, honest! Last summer we completed most of the smaller townships around Slough but we shied off Slough because it seemed so fraught with traffic, locked churches and overwhelmingly large War Memorials. So we diverted our attention to the far north east of the county – the delightful countryside around Olney. As usual we have been helped by our like-minded colleagues, particularly Clint Lawson. But within the last few days (24 December 2010) we have been approached by a kindred spirit who has promised to share his War Memorial findings in Slough and district. Oh what joy if he can help us over our final hurdle! July 2010 It has been a long time since we told you about our progress. Much of the delay is the result of Peter’s involvement with the National Burial Index. Nevertheless, we have now covered 350 memorials. We have been concentrating on the south of the county – Langley, Chalvey, Iver, Colnbrook and other places in that area. We have encountered many casualties who appear on several war memorials and it has been a matter of deep concentration to make sure that the correct reference links between such memorials are maintained.
We will also be demonstrating our Project at the Bucks Local History Network Conference at RAF Halton on 2 October. We are still catching up, mainly on parishes in the Taplow, Eton, Burham, Cippenham, Datchet area. We have also introduced another option key called ‘Local WM Books’. This is an accumulating list of books about Buckinghamshire War Memorials. October 2009 We have had a set-back this month because our ISP has made some fundamental changes to the way it uses its servers. Those who have saved http://fp.underw.f9.co.uk/bucksrems in their Favourites will find that this address no longer works. But you can use http://buckinghamshireremembers.org.uk as before and make this your Favourite or Bookmark. We have not been able to add new information to the website for several weeks but now we are starting to catch up. Until we have completed this task you may find that a few links do not work and we apologise for this. July 2009 On 25 July we exhibited the Buckinghamshire Remembers project at the Buckinghamshire Family History Society Open Day. We were gratified that so many visitors took an interest in what we were doing and we were particularly pleased to be able to put a face to a name of those who have corresponded with us over the three years we have been involved. A number of visitors promised us photographs and these started to arrive by email almost as soon as we got back home! Among the visitors were two families who were offering DNA samples to support the Frumelles Project following an article in the Bucks Herald. July 2009 For some time now we have realised that there is a population of Casualties whom we have been unable to locate on any Buckinghamshire memorial. We have yet to start researching this particular group, but when we do you will be able to access these Casualties by clicking the ‘Non-Memorials’ button which produces an alphabetically sorted list. Clicking on the surname provides more detail – or you can locate them via the ‘Casualties’ button. If you attempt to access these names at the moment, a few fictitious, test entries are displayed. June 2009 Our website is now becoming better known within the Great War Forum and we are receiving an increased number of portraits and other references from relatives of the casualties. A significant breakthrough arises from the interest of Harriet Snookes, a Reporter of the Bucks Herald, who has taken a particular interest in our work. She has enabled us to browse the Bucks Herald archive of their newspapers during the war years. We realise, of course, that all this additional information is going to slow us down but we favour the adage that “if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well”. We are currently helping to trace the relatives of the men of the OBLI who were killed at Fromelles on 19/20 July 1916. They are some of the 400 casualties buried in a mass grave which is now being excavated. It is hoped that some of the relatives who come forward may be willing to collaborate in DNA testing so that the fallen may be identified and given a proper burial. February 2009 We record all Casualties displayed on war memorials, commemorative plaques and on headstones even if this means that a casualty’s name appears several times in the website. A recent analysis has shown that of the 5641 names recorded:
So far in our project we have found that, ignoring the ‘duplicated’ names, 4315 (76 per cent of 5641) men from Buckinghamshire were reported killed in the Great War. We have now almost completed High Wycombe and Marlow. January 2009 Around the 11 November there was a wonderfully informative series of television programmes which focussed on many aspects of the Great War. It was illuminating to be reminded of how miscalculations when setting up the Armistice set the seeds for World War II. We have now produced numerous links to Canadian and Australian sources which describe casualties’ war experiences in such detail. We have completed Denham and as the weather improves we hope to concentrate on the southern-most memorials of the county. November 2008 A few weeks of consolidation focusing mainly on the Chalfonts and Gerrards Cross parishes. It has been a painstaking time for June and Harvey Weiner because so many casualties are duplicated on a number of different war memorials, and so many casualties appear to have originated outside the area. A new search feature has been added. By clicking on the ‘Photograph’ box on the search-set-up screen you can identify those casualties for whom we have a personal photograph. This feature can be combined with any of the other search facilities, such as name, regiment, etc. October 2008 Peter has been in hospital with pneumonia. So while June has had opportunities to do some research in between hospital visits, only now are were getting to work as a team again. September 2008 We would like to acknowledge the help of Harvey Weiner during recent months. He and June have worked closely together researching the High Wycombe records. We cross-check each other’s work and his help has often given us confidence in the assumptions we sometimes have to make about casualties with similar names. There are many memorials in High Wycombe and sometimes we feel it may be some time before we can ‘break out’. Articles in the local press and an interview on local High Wycombe radio have clearly increased awareness of our project and this has resulted in a number of welcome contacts from people with photographs and tales to tell! July 2008 After a 3-week holiday in our beloved Wensleydale (where we gave Edward Nicholl a hand with his war memorial website) we returned to tackle The Royal Grammar School at High Wycombe and the High Wycombe Cemetery. As usual, we found individual casualties mentioned on different memorials and we are gradually teasing out the correct documentation. We were most impressed by the Royal Grammar School, the extent of its archive, and the general tone of the school. June 2008 Research on the many individuals listed on the High Wycombe (Hospital) War Memorial continues but in between times we are now focussing on the Chesham area – the cemetery, the war memorial and the church. Some of the villages in that area have also now been included. April 2008 We are now ‘filling in the gaps’ of our knowledge of the many casualties from the High Wycombe area. Remember that the site is continually being updated. If you cannot find information on a particular casualty, look again in a few days/weeks – more information may then be available. The most recent memorials are in the Beaconsfield – Stoke Poges area. We have added numerous links from casualties in Canadian Regiments to the comprehensive Canadian websites where, for example, Attestation Papers can be read. March 2008 We are very pleased to receive significant grants from
on behalf of Buckinghamshire County Council (Community Leaders’ Fund). These grants are most welcome because they are the first we have received for Buckinghamshire Remembers. February 2008 Progress slow – researching the hundreds of casualties on the High Wycombe (Hospital) war memorial. When you come to list the memorials, an asterisk (*) against a war memorial indicates that the research has been largely completed. A tilde (~) denotes a war memorial where the research is currently incomplete. It may also denote that the relevant war memorial page has not yet been constructed. December 2007 By observing how visitors actually use our site, we see that they often avoid using the Help link at the Casualty search set up screen, and they sometimes forget that a link on the casualty’s tabulation of results will display additional information such as photographs. To avoid the first problem, instructions are now embedded in the search setup screen. To avoid the second problem, clicking a thumbnail of a soldier will take you to additional information, if available. If additional information is not available, a poppy is displayed. November 2007 Well, all thoughts of summer holidays are behind us and we now turn our gaze on High Wycombe. This is going to be a big one. We have just scratched the surface so far with Downley and Wycombe Marsh. The High Wycombe War Memorial at the hospital is August 2007 It has taken us longer than we thought to check and recheck the memorials and the casualties from the north of the county down to the area just south of Aylesbury. But during this summer we have ventured into the Hambleden Valley area to the south of High Wycombe, the Chalfonts, Holmer Green, Penn and other adjacent areas. We are disappointed that our attempts to obtain grants to offset our out-of-pocket expenses (which are considerable) have come to nothing so far. But our enthusiasm is not diminished. We have met some delightful people and their willingness to help by way of stories and photographs has made it all worthwhile. May 2007 The first months of this year have been spent consolidating what we have recorded – checking – particularly how we present casualties that appear on more than one memorial. But we have also started to record the memorials to the south west of High Wycombe. Among these we have included the delightful villages of West Wycombe, Frieth, Fingest, Turville, and Hambleden. Once again we encounter casualties that appear on more than one memorial. February 2007 Having set up a casualty search, the search ‘keys’ are displayed at the top of the list of matches so you have more information to enable you to refine the search if necessary. The number of matches and the current total of records is now placed at the foot of the table of matches. January 2007 The most recent memorials investigated are marked * in the Memorials List. We have now started to display medals, for example, CSM A. Brown of The Lee. It is now possible to search on Cemeteries or Memorials in the Casualties search. These are usually the cemeteries abroad. As with searches on forenames, you need only type part of the cemetery name – no wildcards are required. When you include a cemetery in the search, the cemetery name is included in the List of Matches. Without a cemetery included in the search, the Regiment is listed, as before. Take care to refine your search if necessary by inspection of the List of Matches. If you search for ‘tyn’ there are 176 matches (so far). If you search for ‘zonnebeke’, there are 178 matches because there are more cemeteries than ‘Tyne Cot’ in Zonnebeke. Please read the ‘Hints on searching for casualties’. December 2006 We have now added nearly 130 Memorials and 3000 Casualties to Buckinghamshire Remembers, focussing on the parishes extending from the Buckinghamshire county boundary in the north, to those just south of Aylesbury. Some details of a number of records are still missing, waiting until we can complete the research. We are tending to avoid visiting major new Memorials for the time being so that we can check and consolidate our existing records. In the List of memorials, a red asterisk against the name of a Memorial indicates that it has been added within the last few weeks. When these ‘new’ Memorials have been listed for about a month, the asterisk will be removed. On the Home page we now give the date on which the site was last updated. We usually try to upload the site every few days as more detail is added. We would like to thank those who have taken an interest in our work and have sent photographs and additional information, particularly after the recent article in the Bucks Herald. A new ‘BR’ icon has been made which should appear to the left hand side of your Favourites entry for Buckinghamshire Remembers. If your Favourites for ‘BR’ is already present you should delete it and make a new one. |
At the Open Day of the Buckinghamshire Family History Society in July
we had a stand next to The Friends of the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry
and the Western Front Association. This was ideal! We renewed contact
with many friends and contributors. The lower part of the photo on the
right shows a map of our coverage – the orange colour indicates the
parishes already complete and the green indicates the parishes more
recently completed.