WWI Roll of Honour, St Catherine's Church, Bearwood

I have uploaded this photo in the hope that it may be of use to others searching for their ancestors and the role they played in the First World War.

 

I find this memorial, which is hung on the wall of the porch in the church, particularly moving. The date that war was declared has been written on the shield on the left but the shield on the right, for the war's end date, is empty.

 

I know from my research that Frank Potter, my grandfather's uncle, was killed in 1916 - and two more of his brothers were to follow. It is poignant that the Roll of Honour must have been started with much gusto and as the war dragged on, perhaps it became too painful to keep it up-to-date. By the end of the war, maybe it no longer felt worth it to inscribe the date that peace was declared.

 

The priest of the church did not appear to know about this memorial - I asked him about it and then found it myself as he could not help. I can imagine that at the start of the war, the families hung the Roll with pride and then, perhaps, as reality was too real, it was forgotten about. Perhaps it was forgotten about until I found it in 2012.

 

To view larger sizes of the photo and read the text for yourself, click on 'Actions' above the photo. For search purposes, the soldiers listed are written out below. Please leave a comment if you have found this image useful.

 

Alfred Henry Allen - Royal Field Artillery

Alfred Arnatt - 2nd Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

William Leslie Allnatt - RFA Motor Machine Gun Section

Ralph Ayres - Royal Engineers

George Baker

William Barnes - Army Veterinary Corps

William Norman Black - HMS Safeguard

Job Broadhurst - Army Service Corps

Alfred Bye - Army Service Corps

George Challis - Army Service Corps

Edward Challis - Army Service Corps

William James Clements - 8th Bucks & Oxfordshire

Gilbert Cook

Harry Cook

Thomas Cook [wounded]

Walter Cox

Maurice Deane - 1/4 Royal Berks

Ernest Harold Deane - Royal Army Medical Corps

Thomas Denton - Army Veterinary Corps

Victor Denton - Army Veterinary Corps

Jack Denton - 4th Royal Berks

Charles Eamer - 2nd Royal Berks

Henry Eamer - 2nd Royal Berks

William Eamer - 4th Rifle Brigade

Thomas Wheeler Evans - 3rd Royal Berks

Enos George Farr - HMS Queen Mary

Hubert Walter Farr - 1st Royal Berks [wounded]

James Gardiner - 1st Royal Berks [killed in action]

Hugh Godsal - Royal Field Artillery

Alan Godsal - 7th Rifle Brigade [killed in action at Hooge July 30. 15]

James Goodyer - 4th Royal Berks

Percy Frederick Gregory - Royal Engineers

William Henry Grainger - Army Service Corps

Charles William Hooper - Army Service Corps

George Addington Howkins - 12th Northumberland Fusiliers Machine Gun Section [killed in action at Loos, Sept 26.7.15]

Joseph Edward Hunt - Royal Engineers

Albert Victor Hunt - Royal Engineers

James Hunt - Army Service Corps

Alfred Hyde - Royal Army Medical Corps

Ernest Edward Ives

David Arthur Johnson - 4th Hampshire

Percy Kelsey Kaye - 6th Royal Berks, Machine Gun Section

Henry Kennedy - 3rd Royal Berks [killed in action, Dec. 1. 14]

Thomas Andrew Laney - HMS Impregnable

George Stephen Langford - 3rd Royal Berks

Hugh Philip Leach - Royal Field Artillery

Edward Robert Leach - Army Service Corps

Sidney Lovejoy - Royal Marine Light Infantry

Thomas Lunn - 3rd Royal Berks

Frederick George Lyddiatt - 4th Gloucestershire

William May - Scottish Canadian Gordon Highlanders

Guy Deacon Meadowcroft - 11th Royal West Kent

Samuel Meadowcroft

William George Middleton - Army Service Corps

Reginald Victor Millson - HMS Superb

Arthur William Godley Oates - Army Service Corps

Arthur Willam Paley - 3rd Royal Berks

George Neville Payne - Royal Engineers

Frederick Parker - HMS Illustrious

Edwin Charles Phillips - Royal Army Medical Corps [wounded]

Frank Phillips - 1st London Rifle Brigade

George Phillips - 4th Royal Berks

William Phillips - 4th Royal Berks

John Potter - HMS Jupiter

George Potter - HMS Liverpool

Thomas Potter - 7th Royal Berks

Reginald Potter - 4th Royal Berks

Percy Stephen Potter - King's Royal Rifles

Frank Potter - HMS Powerful

John Pursey - 5th East Surrey

Joseph Pursey - 5th East Surrey

George Edward Rabbitts

George Rogers - 3rd Royal Berks

Thomas Rogers - Royal Horse Artillery

Charles Rogers - 10th Hussars

Joseph Rogers - Royal Field Artillery

Joseph Sadler - Royal Horse Artillery

Charles Sarjeant - 6th Royal Berks

William Shadbolt - 7th Queen's West Surrey

Alfred Reginald Silver - 8th Royal Berks [wounded]

William Silver - 1st Grenadier Guards [wounded]

William Simpson - 4th Royal Berks

Daniel John Smith - 9th Leicestershire

Frederick William Smith - 2nd Royal Berks [wounded]

William Taylor - Army Service Corps

Cecil William Taylor - 3rd Royal Berks [wounded & prisoner]

Albert Henry Turner - Army Service Corps

Stephen Walter - Royal Naval Air Service

Harry Watts - York & Lancs.

Alfred Watts - Royal Marine Artillery

Joseph Watts - 7th Hussars

William Watts - 3/4 Royal Berks

George Wingfield - Royal Flying Corps

John Wingfield - Royal Flying Corps

Charles Wise - Royal Marine Light Infantry

David Yardley - 5th Royal Berks

Done