Cirencester War Memorials
This project got started when it was realised that not only are there two main memorial lists, but that they differ.
Memorial Information
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]
Clive Bowsher has written of the above picture “….. accompanying text speculates that it depicts the machine gun section of the regiment. I can confirm tht 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.