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Cirencester

War

Memorials

This project got started when it was realised that not only are there two main memorial lists, but that they differ.

First World War Memorials

in Cirencester

Seeking the personal stories:

The project began many years ago when Jim and Deidre Waddell compiled the lists of names from the two memorials. We have lists from the town memorials for both World Wars, but have chosen to study the Great War first, during its centenary. The list from World War Two is available [panel left below ] The study limits itself to understanding why the names are on the Memorials, and others who might justifiably be there, but does not include those people commemorated on memorials outside of the Cirencester Parish, such as the surrounding villages. (Some of these villages have made their own studies, much easier due to low numbers!) Linda Viner compiled a searchable list from the two, sorted much else besides, and has found out more about the one woman on the list. Dale Hjort leads the project for CAHS and has been adding dates of death and regimental information. This shows several gaps, where he has not been able to distinguish between men of similar name, or indeed can find no information. Florence Beetlestone searched the Wilts and Glos Standard for news items referring to these people. We still need your help to fill in the lives of these people. We would like to see stories, pictures and confirmation of detail of these men. Most of the photos we have are copied from old newspapers. If you would like to offer better quality originals, we would love to copy and use them. You can contact us at ww1 at cirenhistory.org.uk Our studies so far were available in the Corinium Museum exhibition on World War 1 which ran from mid August to mid September 2014. They are now made permanently available via the links to be found left. All detailed pages are now available on this site. Below are a few of the posters from the exhibition. Unfortunately we cannot blow them up enough here to make them readable, as they were very large. [You may read some of it if you have a Retina display]

Memorial Information

All WW1 Names-pdf All WW2 Names-pdf WW1 Detailed biographies (nextpage)

Page updated 27 Feb 2018

Dale Hjort’s notes on the background Picture, sent by David Brooks of Thornham in Norfolk: W Dennis Moss was a Cirencester-based photographer during the WW1 period and photographed much local military activity. I think from studying their cap badges that the group of soldiers in your Moss photograph are men of the 1/1 Gloucestershire Yeomanry. They appear to be the Machine Gun Section with their officer; the barn where they are gathered looks more Norfolk than Cotswolds to me. Some of them are wearing jackets with frogging on the sleeves, suggesting the early months of the war. Between November 1914 and April 1915 1/1 Gloucs Yeomanry guarded the North Norfolk coast. The officers’ mess at The Home Mead was damaged on the night of 19/20 January 1915 when the German airship L4 jettisoned bombs on Heacham. At least one Gloucester- based professional photographer “attached” himself to a local battalion in the early months of the war. If these suggestions are correct, these men would within a few months be at Gallipoli. [Ed- for those using a tablet the picture is shown right, it can be expanded.]

Clive Bowsher has written of the above picture: “…the accompanying text speculates that it depicts the machine gun section of the regiment. I can confirm that is correct - the same photo was published in the Cheltenham Chronicle & Gloucestershire Graphic, April 3, 1915 and can be found on the web. The officer is Lt G.N. Horlick (of the family that produced the powdered drink of the same name). The photo was taken at Hunstanton. The photo shows that some members of the RGH were still wearing their old pre-war uniforms up to the time they left for Egypt - some of their caps are 'Beaufort' or 'Badminton' blue (worn with khaki cap covers), they have the same colour on their stand-up collars and it is also used for the piping on the cuffs of their tunics. They also wear blue puttees and may have (although they're not visible) thin blue stripes up the outside of the legs of their breeches. As you might guess, my interest is in uniforms (the RGH in particular). There is some more info on Lt Horlick at http://1914- 1918.invisionzone.com/forums/topic/199396-horlicks-malted-milk-lunch- tablets/ “

Background

On 31st October 1918 the War Memorial Cross beneath the Tower of Cirencester Parish Church was dedicated to "... the men of Cirencester who have given their lives for their King and Country in the Great War, 1914 -18". It was intended to inscribe their names on panels on the West wall of the South porch once the war was ended. In December 1918 a preliminary list was published of "... all who have fallen in the war who are known to have been natives of Cirencester or whose home was in Cirencester at the time that they joined up...", together with "... a few relatives or close personal friends of the donors," Mr Thomas and Hon. Mrs Kingscote of Watermoor House, who had funded the Memorial. It is believed that the qualifying area would have been that of the “Urban District Council”, which differs from the present Town Council area. In July 1919 a public appeal was made for a further memorial in the form of an extension to Cirencester Hospital, then in Sheep Street. The Roll of Honour on this building - now the Cirencester Memorial Centre - was prepared in 1921 to list "... all Cirencester men and women who fell in the war or died from the effects of wounds received or illness contracted on active service, the qualifications adopted being 1] birth in the Parish of Cirencester 2] enrolment whilst resident in Cirencester." So broadly speaking some men are named on the church panels who did not qualify for the later memorial, which includes some whose death occurred or became known after the inscription of the church panels. Only one woman is named, Julia Herbert, who was a Red Cross worker. The lists (left) give name, date of death if known, regiment or service, if known, and which memorial panel the names are on. The date of death will help you search the Wilts and Glos Standard (to be found on microfilm in Cirencester’s Bingham Library) for announcements, obituaries or letters. We have now extracted most World War 1 references from the WGStandard. If you find a newspaper article we have not included in the relevant biography, do let us know. You may find that relatives that you thought met the criteria above are not listed. We would like to know this too. There is correspondence about Henry Day, for example, who died of wounds in November 1915, who had links to many places near here, but not, it seems in Cirencester itself. He cannot be found we think on any memorial in the county. His grave is in Sussex.

Some stories on the way

The previous version of this site carried a blog of a journey towards the 2014 exhibition in the Corinium Museum, which is not reproduced. We give a few stories below. 8 Nov 2012 The War Memorials Trust has sent us their bulletin. They have launched www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk which cost English Heritage £250K, so it is cleverer than this site, which has only cost about £36 a year so far. Their new site uses the Imperial War Museum listing of memorials, and wants you to add in the details. The Trust is set up to preserve war memorials, and has many examples of those in disrepair. Our church memorial has just had a facelift, of course, but we need to carefully watch the other, which CDC is minded to sell, we hear. From W&G Standard 8 Aug 1914 [four days after War Declared] Army horses from Ciren district On Wednesday morning a party of officers and men from the 18th Hussars arrived at Cirencester with instructions to procure 72 horses at once. We understand the horses were obtained during the day, many of the hunting men of the district and other owners readily placing their horses at the disposal of the government. Between 70 and 80 horses of various stamps and all exceedingly serviceable were marshalled in the yard of the King’s Head Hotel on Wednesday evening, and after being branded and labelled were taken by the soldiers in charge to Salisbury Plain. On Thursday morning owners having horses for sale were requested to parade them at the Cirencester cattle market at 11 o’clock. Found by Linda Viner - published in Newsletter 59 1 April 2013 Some controversy surrounds the Bannatyne Staircase (see Other Cirencester Memorials) which is not “listed”, nor is the building in which it is located. CDC would clearly like to demolish the Memorial Hospital, but have been trying to find relatives since 2002. It is a handsome staircase which would have been climbed by most patients and visitors to the hospital which closed in the early 90s. Member Simon Fielding of Rendcomb later provided detail of Bannatyne’s life and death. 23 November 2015 News of a Gloucestershire man who does not seem to be on any memorial. Kevin Gordon of Seaford Museum in Sussex has been researching the 250 or so war graves in his local churchyard - there was a military hospital nearby. Henry Robert DAY, 11th Glos Rgt died aged 19 on 10th November 1915. Linda has found that the family lived in many places in the county and the death announcement in WGS. Kevin ensured that a poppy was placed on his grave on the centenary of his death The history of the Memorial Hospital building can be found in Newsletter 48