War Memorials WWI and WW2

[Derek Baker]

I am tracing the history of the names on the Village WWI war memorial dedicated in Nov 1924. Hennock is a tiny village and there are only 11 names on the memorial from WWI and 6 names from WW2. In both lists only surname and Initials are given. I have managed to trace 10 of the names of those killed in WWI and know where and when they died, their parents names and how they were connected to the village. However 1 name G H Millman is proving difficult. For a start there is no one of that name listed as a casualty in WWI and no family of that name (or similar name) in the Parish in the 1911 census. The folks at the WWI forum have been very helpful but are unable to shed any light, other than someone else did report a similar occurrence on his Town Memorial. A person who has no apparent connection to the place where the memorial stands and is not listed as a casualty.
I have also found in the church yard memorials to men not listed on the War Memorial but giving date and place of demise, which on checking with the WWI casualty list and Commonwealth War Graves are correct.
So it would seem that in the case of WWI memorials all may not be as it seems.
What stared as I thought would be a simple task to correlate 1911 census with the War Memorial is going to turn into a long search through un catalogued papers in the County Archive in the hope of finding something.
It may in the end turn out to be a mistake (wrong spelling or wrong name) or someone who had gone missing (shell shock or for other reasons) and the family assumed the worst.
The Memorial committee was chaired by the Vicar (as it seems was usual) but the minutes of the meetings (where all may have been revealed) are missing, hopefully also somewhere in the Devon Archive.
Derek
PS. WW2 names are even more difficult because service records from WW2 are still classified and only available to next of kin and available casualty lists seem only to give minimal information. But that is a project for another day.

 

[AdrienneQ]

I wonder if he could have died some time after the war but before Nov 1924

 

[Derek Baker]

The cut of date for War Casualties was sometime in 1919 so if he died between 1919 and 1924 of War wounds or Gas there should be a civilian death record. But there is not one, he is very much the WWI man who never was!

 

[AndyMick]

A friend of mine has been doing Crich (Derbyshire) War Memorial. As Derek says, the task is not straightforward. Sometimes the local connection can be very tenuous - maybe someone local has a relative who died and persuaded the vicar to include them on the memorial. Sometimes the person hasn't even died - in my one name study I have a person on Dukinfield War Memorial, but the chap was still alive but living in Sheffield, but local contact had, I guess, been lost and they thought he'd died. So do what you can Derek. Your efforts will be appreciated by someone.

 

[Derek Baker]

The more I look into this the more I am convinced that he was included in error.
I have looked through the Births and Deaths records for the surname Millman and initial G registered in Devon and within the results there are only 3 G H Millmans (all George Henry) who could have been of the right age to serve in WWI. There are others born before 1850.
As you will see 2 died before WWI and one lived to 1953.
Looking nationally there is one other possibility George Harold and he died in 1910.
This leaves only one conclusion the G H Millman on the war memorial was the person born in 1889 and who died in 1953.
His family must have thought he was a casualty or why else would his name have been submitted.
The names are:

1. George Henry, Born Mar 1882, Newton A. 5b 131, Died Dec 1897, age 15, Totnes 5b 105, Birth year calculated from age on death record 1882
2. George Henry, Born Mar 1893, Totnes 5b 163, Died Jun 1893, age 0, Totnes 5b 128, Birth year calculated from age on death record 1893
3. George Henry, Born Sep 1889, Newton A. 5b 114, Died Dec 1953, 64, Okehampton 7a 515, Birth year calculated from age on death record 1889
4. George Harold, Jun 1884, Chester 8a 399, Died Jun 1910, 26, Chester 8a 234, Birth year calculated from age on death record 1884

 

[Vonderene]

I have been doing a similar exercise for the village of Barkston in Lincolnshire. Of the eleven names on the memorial ten belong to the first War and one to the second. Like you I have discovered the links can be very tenuous in some cases and seem non-existant in others. One chap died in a hospital in Wales in December 1918 and although he was buried in the village he does not have a CWGC stone, but one placed there by his family. This stone has been broken at some time and is in very bad condition. I contacted the CWGC about it and was informed that families were given the choice of having an "official" stone and sometimes this was turned down if the burial took place here in the UK. It seems a great shame that this particular fellow's grave has fallen into disrepair as he was awarded the Military Medal for bravery.

 

[Derek Baker]

I have often wondered about what happened to those poor souls who died years later of wounds or gas, where are they remembered? The village church burials register for the post war period does not mention any specifically but that sort of information may only be mentioned on the death cert.