Thread: Recognition of Our Fallen by Local Authorities

Originally Posted by Punch

I agree with Barking Spider that so many of these memorials, paid for with the tears of relatives, should not be in storerooms but should be cared for as history and tresure of our nation. It pains me that it is otherwise.

Thanks, shocking isn't it?
A Museum's all about history but probably the most horrific part of our recent history is hidden away, so our children will learn a lot from that then...
The memorials I wrote about won't be in that bloody storeroom for much longer if I have anything to do with it.

It was once traditional that a school should raise and display a memorial plaque or something similar ( and often a scholarship or major sporting trophy) in commemmoration of an Old Boy/Girl who had given more than most to society and to their country. After WW1 these became large panels of the names of those who served and who gave their lives.
These memorials were given prominence in the ethos of the school or college and the pupils were regularly reminded of the sacrifice of those who had gone before.
How many modern educational buildings, the successors of those schools, have such a memorial. And why, when alterations are made to older buildings are the memorials not a major part of the new construction. This is how so many of these, as Barking Spider says, end up in storerooms or, God forgive us, smashed up in skips.
In our pseudo-liberal modern world with its emphasis on the gratification of "self" it is unlikely that pupils will ever again bow their heads to a list of names of those they did not know but who held the standards they must aspire to.

Originally Posted by BarkingSpider

Originally Posted by Punch

I agree with Barking Spider that so many of these memorials, paid for with the tears of relatives, should not be in storerooms but should be cared for as history and treasure of our nation. It pains me that it is otherwise.

Thanks, shocking isn't it?
A Museum's all about history but probably the most horrific part of our recent history is hidden away, so our children will learn a lot from that then...
The memorials I wrote about won't be in that bloody storeroom for much longer if I have anything to do with it.

BarkingSpider is there anything anyone here can do to help?
Does anyone know of other such memorials hidden away in storerooms or in inappropriate places?
Can these be brought into public awareness and treated with due respect?

Ian Hislop was involved in a campaign along these lines, when he did a TV Programme about memorials. Not sure how helpful that is though.

BS, the existing register of uk war memorials, supported in part by the Imperial War Museum can be found at http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/

It may be a start to see if those memorials are listed as existing and to add them if not.

This won't happen they are too busy namng Parks, Streets etc after people like Steve Beko, Nelson Mandela etc etc Well they have all done so much for Great Britain...

Magic

This seems like a good point to highlight the outstanding work of Steve Jones, who has produced two superb websites (one for Pembrokeshire and another for Carmarthenshire) to record the county's war memorials, war graves, individual memorials and even the war dead with no memorials other than his websites:

http://www.pembrokeshire-war-memorial.co.uk/

As has been said; many memorials exist in old school and factory buildings and are regularly lost when those buildings are demolished. Websites like this do a great service in highlighting the fact that these memorials do exist.

Wow, a lot of support for preservation of war memorials here! Great stuff!

I started out from the UKNIWM database which is of course available online. Now having researched it a little bit I know that they are funded through the Imperial War Museum and have just two permanent staff and about a hundred volunteers who collate and update the information sent in by people such as myself. The memorials in Keighley: I'm working my way through these using the UKNIWM info and photographing and recording them, then I'm sending back the information to update their records. I'm specifially supplying lists of names which they don't usually have a record of, just the numbers. I am also confiming that the memorial still exists and its current condition. According to the UKNIWM there are about 12 Keighley memorials missing or lost, but that's not necessarily the case in reality, it just means the UKNIWM has no records available. Any I find will be brought back into the fold, so to speak.
If anyone wants to help then you can easily do the same as I'm doing with your own local memorials, you might find there are just a dozen or so which would be fairly easy to find and record and email the info and pictures back to UKNIWM. I'm just doing my bit for history.
Regarding the ones in storage, well it's not ideal but they have been saved and are indeed safe now. But safe just doesn't cut it for me. They've lost their meaning when they're out of sight. So I'm currently networking with a few local contacts to see what can be done about them. There is a new 'peoples gallery' in the Keighley museum where they are stored and I reckon they should be up on the walls in this gallery on a permanent basis. We'll see what happens but it might take a bit of time to push this through.

Regarding online memorials:
I've seen quite a lot recently and we do have a couple local to us.
There's:
Craven's Part in the Great War - supported by Ian Hislop... (who incidentally have already found new homes for three local memorial plaques, so there's a precedent there and I've had contact with them regarding help for the ones I'm campaigning about).

And then there's:
Men of Worth (which is my own local project).

Many of the local councils in Wales are adding the names of the fallen from Afghanistan and Iraq to the local cenotaphs. And Freedom Parades and Services are very common place.

Originally Posted by dockers

BS, the existing register of uk war memorials, supported in part by the Imperial War Museum can be found at http://www.ukniwm.org.uk/

It may be a start to see if those memorials are listed as existing and to add them if not.

many thanks for that. I am supposed to be responsible for updating our own local memorial, but am stumped as to where I get a list of names of locals who have fallen. any assistance greatly appreciated!!

I was quite surprised, and really pleased to discover that Neath Cadet Centre (the old TA Centre) contains a load of relocated memorials from demolished factories and municipal buildings. Full marks to that town for ensuring that these memorials have been preserved.

I'd guess that most local councils are willing to ensure memorials are not destroyed, not the same thing as remaining on view. The issue may be how council staff deal with the matter. On building demolition, one possibility would be to ensure that planning permission had to explicitly identify if a building up for demolition had a memorial and the plan for its survival. The obvious way to fix this is to change the primary legislation, assuming it currently says nothing. Now, who is the shadow minister for planning?