TOM MORGAN & PHIL CURME

Beneath the White Wood Crosses.....

The original British and Commonwealth Grave-Markers of the Western Front

The "British" War Grave is easily recognisable today because of its distinctive headstone. The original grave-marker, though, was a simple wooden cross with a painted inscription.  Many original crosses from the battlefield still survive in various parts of the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Anyone who has ever travelled over an area in which fighting took place during the Great War will know the feeling of being numbed into silence by the vast number of war cemeteries to be seen. They seem to be everywhere.  There are three types of cemeteries. Firstly there are what have come to be called "Comrades Cemeteries." these are the ones in which survivors, after an attack, buried the bodies of their fallen comrades just behind the lines.


Nine graves around a water-filled shell-hole. These graves are now to be found in the Menin Road Cemetery, just outside Ypres, Flanders.

The gravestones in these cemeteries are often set in long rows, the headstones so close as to be almost touching each other - evidence of the method of burial used, with one or two long trenches being dug and the bodies laid side-by-side in them.

The second kind of cemetery has been called the "Concentration Cemetery" type. This kind of cemetery was not started until after the war, when bodies were brought in from isolated graves on the battlefields and gathered together in new cemeteries for ease of maintenance. In these cemeteries, the gravestones are usually laid out in the familiar plots with rows of ten graves, with the gravestones spaced out.

The third kind of cemetery is a combination of both, where a small cemetery was enlarged by the addition of new plots, often extending it towards a nearby road. In these cemeteries there will be the "regulation" rows of ten graves, but somewhere the original burials can be seen and recognised by the longer rows, the closer burials and the different orientation of the rows themselves.  The original burials in this type of cemetery are almost always called "Plot 1."

Elsewhere in Hellfire Corner there is a reference to the origins of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission which grew from a small group of Red Cross workers who, finding that the army had no real organisation for burying the dead and marking their graves, took this vast job on themselves. Their efforts were appreciated both by those left at home, for whom the existence of a  known, marked grave was a great comfort. Their first title was the Graves Registration Unit and they were soon sufficiently organised to be able to begin the job of sending official photographs of graves home to relatives.


2/Lieut. Wilfred Young was shot while leading a party of men making a new trench in No-Man's Land on 29th May, 1915 and died in a nearby dressing-station the next day. His grave has two memorials - the wooden cross seen in the photograph and the more ornate one within a circle both bear his name.

The existence of a marked grave was just as important to the men who still survived, and this is illustrated by what happened following the death of another soldier called Young. There were three Young brothers, Sidney, Ernie and Jessie, all serving in different regiments.  Sidney was killed in 1914, at le Cateau. Ernie, serving with the Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed on Christmas Eve, 1916, at the age of 21. The remaining brother, Jessie, found the grave just over a week later and made the cross for the grave himself. He describes it in a letter written to his sister: 

Jan 17th 1917

"My darling little sister Jaggie,

I heard the sad news on the 4th or 5th of Jan so I went round to a graveyard and there found my dear brother's grave. I went back and made a nice wooden cross & painted it white then my pal in the pioneers done the writing on it. On the top it had the RS badge and then "In memory of 14897 Private EG Young 13th RS Killed In Action 24/12/1916." Then at the bottom in a scroll "Erected and made by his loving brother Jessie,1st Cambs". We came into the line the night poor Ernie was killed and little did I think such a tragedy would happen".

Jessie himself was killed in August of the same year, at Ypres.

The wooden crosses remained the only markers until the Imperial War Graves Commission began the job of making the cemeteries permanent after the war. This work was not completed until the 1930s and even today, bodies are still recovered from the battlefields and transferred to cemeteries, one cemetery being kept "open" to receive them.

Some of the original crosses have, somehow, survived to the present day. Instead of being thrown away when permanent headstones replaced them, they were brought to the UK and are still to be found in many parts of the country. One of my oldest Internet Friends, Phil Curme, has details of where they are:

Geographical Locations Of Great War Crosses To October, 1997

AVON
Abbots Leigh, Bristol
Bath
Becklington, Bath
Dyrham Park, Bath
Hawkesbury Upton - Church of St. Mary
Stapleton, Bristol

BEDFORDSHIRE
Bedford School, Bedford
Linslade
Toddington

BERKSHIRE
Aldworth
Finchampstead - Church of St. James

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE
Dorney
Gayhurst
Milton Keynes
Thornton - Church of St. Michael & All Angels
Tingewick

CAMBRIDGESHIRE
Covington (Parish Church) The original grave marker of Major Carew Barnett of the 6th BTN Duke of Cornwell's Light Infantry who died 12th August 1915. There is a picture of the cross on the church's web-site. Added to this list 19.12.99
Wisbech (St Peter's Church)   added to this list 25.5.97

CEREDIGION
Aberyswyth
Cribyn, Nr Lampeter - Church of St. Silin

CHESHIRE
Great Sutton
Middlewich - Church of St. Michael & All Angels
Neston
Quarry Bank Mill

CLEVELAND
Kirkby
Hartlepool
Redcar

CUMBRIA
Allithwaite  
Aspatria   
Finsthwaite 
Grange-Over-Sands (St. Paul's Parish Church)  
Grasmere
High Hesket
Sedburgh School, Sedburgh
Scotby
Worcop  

DERBYSHIRE
Hathersage
Upper Langwith

DEVON
Castle Drago
Cockington, Torquay the original grave marker of Maj. C. H. Mallock, D.S.O., Royal Field Artillery, who died of wounds 5th November, 1917,  Click here to see photo
Great Torrington
Holne
Manaton, Newton Abbot
West Alvington

DORSET
Bournemouth
Bridport
Dorchester
Gillingham
Winterbourne Carne

DUMFRIES &  GALLOWAY
Castle Douglas - Scottish Episcopal Church

COUNTY DURHAM
Chester-Le-Street
Darlington, West Cemetery
Durham Cathedral

DYFED
Milton Haven

ESSEX
Epping
Rochford
Shenfield  

FLINTSHIRE
Harwarden - Church of St. Deiniol
Nanerch - Church of St. Michael & All Angels

GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Batsford
Chedworth - Church of St. Andrew
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire Regimental Museum
Hawkesbury
Kemerton
Naunton
Ozleworth
Stanway
Stonehouse
South Cerney (All Hallows Church. At the top of the cross are the initials G.R.U. (Graves Registration Unit) The details at the centre of the cross are: 15193 L/Cpl. J. Whitcombe R.C.D. 6 F/Garry Horse. Died of Wounds 1/7/15)  Added to this list 26.5.98
Swindon
Tewkesbury Abbey
Tortworth

GREATER MANCHESTER
Manchester
Styall Mill, Manchester

GWENT
Penhow

HAMPSHIRE
Binsted, Alton
Bury - Church of St. May the Virgin
Bury - Lancashire Fusiliers Museum
Crondall
Fleet
Headbourne Worthy
Hursley
Northington
Sale - Church of St. Anne
Sale - Church of St. Martin
Stoke Charity
Winchester

HAMPSHIRE
Aldershot - Military Garrison Church
Carisbrook
East Stratton - Church of All Saints
Farnborough ("propeller cross") Church of St. Mark
Itchen Abbas - Church of St. John
Lockerley - Church of St. John

HEREFORD & WORCESTER
Malvern

HERTFORDSHIRE
Eastwick

HUMBERSIDE
Barmston, Bridlington
Beverley
Bishops Burton, Beverley

INVERNESS
Kinlochmoidart, Fort William - Church of St. Finan

KENT
Ashford
Chiddingstone
Chislehurst
Cowden
Darenth - Church of St. Mary
Dymchurch
Ightham Mote
Herne, Near Herne Bay
Lydd
Nackington, Canterbury
Orlestone - Church of St. Mary - original grave marker of  Lieutenant Roderick Magrath Oliver, 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, 27th August 1918, aged 36 years. There is also a memorial window to him in the church. Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards.
He is buried in Mory Abbey Military Cemetery, Mory.
Petham
Sandwich - Church of St. Peter
Shipbourne
Westwell
Willesborough, Ashford

LANCASHIRE
Bury
Carnforth - Church of All Saints
Newton le Willows - Church of All Saints

LEICESTERSHIRE
Belvoir Castle
Hinckley

LINCOLNSHIRE
Brocklesbury
Long Sutton

LONDON
Acton - Church of St. Alban
All Hallows by the Tower
Beckenham - Church of St. Barnabus
Guards Museum - Wellington Barracks
Harefield - Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Hendon - Royal Air Force Museum
Kensington
Lombard Street - Church of St Edmund King & Martyr
Richmond - Church of St. John the Divine

MERSEYSIDE
Bromborough
Formby, Sefton
Garston
Hooton - Church of St. Paul
Liverpool
Oxton
Toxteth, Liverpool

MIDDLESEX
Harefield

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Collingham, Newark

NORFOLK
East Wretham, Thetford
Great Snoring
Tittishall, Fakenham
Welbourne, East Dereham
Winterlow
Winterton - Church of Holy Trinity and All Saints

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE
Brockley
Flore
Weedon Bec   added to this list 9.11.97

NORTHUMBERLAND
Alnwick Castle

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
Babworth
Carlton-On-Trent
Car Colston
Clayworth
Collingham, Newark - Church of St. John the Baptist
Granby
Ossington
Southwell Minster

OXFORDSHIRE
Broughton Poggs
Burford
Childrey
Coleshill
Deddington - in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Deddington, Oxfordshire are 9 crosses, the original grave markers of:

1.Pte A Ell. 3.3.17 Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry (buried in churchyard)

2. Unreadable.

3. Spr AE Hancock. 101st Field Company. RE. 1917.

4. Pte F Custain. 1st Bn Codstream Guards. 29/9/1916.

5. Australia. Pte WE French 11th Bn AIF 10/2/1916 (buried in churchyard)

6. Unreadable.

7. 2nd Lt RP Bull, 1st Northants 1/11/18 (Buried at Le Cateau).

8. J Castle 12/11/18 Ox and Bucks LI (buried in churchyard)

9. Pte OAJH Dore. 5/10/18. Royal Warwicks Regt. (buried in churchyard)

Nos 1, 5, 8 and 9 are buried in the churchyard.

Oxford, Holywell Cemetery
Oxford, St Peter's College Chapel   added to this list 9.11.97
Rotherfield Greys
St. Cross Cemetery  added to this list 10.12.97
(Grave-marker of R. W. Poulton-Palmer. Balliol College, 1908, Captain, England Rugby XV, killed in Action 1915. Buried near Ploegsteert Wood, Belgium.)
Stoke Lyne
Warworth
Wootton-By-Woodstock

POWIS
Crickhowell
Llanfild

RUTLAND
Bisbrooke (Two wooden crosses originally from the grave of  The Hon. Percy Charles Evans-Freke, Lieutenant Colonel, Leicestershire Yeomanry, who was killed by a sniper on Thursday, 13th May, 1915 and is buried in Divisional Cemetery, Dickebusch Road, Ypres.)

SHROPSHIRE
Bitterley, Near Ludlow
Bridgnorth
Ludlow - Church of St. Lawrence

SOMERSET
Mells

STAFFORDSHIRE
King's Bromley
Walton-On-The-Hill

STIRLING
Stirling

SUFFOLK
Barking
Blyford
Cavendish
Coston - Church of St. Michael
Framlingham
Garboldisham
Halesworth (Propeller Cross)
Leavenheath
Melton Old Church
Monewden
Thorington - Church of St. Peter
Wissett

SURREY
Beddington - Church of St. Mary
Brookwood Cemetery
Byfleet
Cranleigh
East Horsley
Epsom
Haselmere - Church of St. Bartholomew
Leatherhead
Merrow, Guildford
Ranmore, Dorking
West Byfleet - Church of St. Mary
Witley

SUSSEX
Boxgrove Priory
Burwash
Ringmer
Rustington
Turner's Hill
Wivelsfield - Parish Church, Church Lane -  the original grave-marker of 2/Lt. A.R. Griffiths 53/Bty RFA  9-8-1915. The cross hangs inside the church on the north wall and has a stone plaque under reading - "The above cross marked the grave of Sec. Lt. Allen Rhys Griffiths RFA who was killed in action nr Hooge Flanders  Aug 9 1915 age 22."  His grave, reference I.2. is located in the Ramparts Cemetery, Lille Gate, Ieper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. 

TYNE &WEAR
Chester-le Street   

WARWICKSHIRE
Arrow
Curdworth
Knowle
Warwickshire Regimental Museum
Weston Under Wetherley, Leamington Spa

WEST MIDLANDS
Solihull

WILTSHIRE
Bowood House, Chippenham
Bromham
Calne, Church of St. Mary the Virgin cross to Charles Mercer Nairne. Next to it is a stained glass window depicting the cross. He is buried in ypres town cemetery.

Donhead St. Andrew  -Parish Church Cross to Capt, N. W. Hill MC, 2nd Battalion, Ox. & Bucks. Light Infantry, Aged 20. Buried in Courcelette British Cemetery, Somme.
Longbridge Deverell - Church of SS. Peter & Paul
Longleat (2 crosses)
Marlborough College Chapel
Middle Woodford, Salisbury
Salisbury - Cathedral
Salisbury - Church of St. Thomas a Beckett

WORCESTERSHIRE
Alfick
Kempsey - Church of St. Mary
Malvern

YORKSHIRE
Bridlington
Cleckheaton
Husthwaite, near Easingwold - Church of St. Nicholas
Norton, Sheffield
Richmond

REPUBLIC OF EIRE
Youghal, County Cork - St. Mary's Collegiate Church

The original Battlefield Cross and the present headstone of
Cpl. C. E. Brooks,
Royal West Kent Regiment,
The wooden cross is the one at Willesborough, Kent.
The grave with its standard headstone is at Vlamertinghe, near Ypres.

(Photos - Kyle Tallett, owner, Man of Kent Great War Site - see the Links Page to visit.)

This is the list of currently-known surviving battlefield crosses - the product of a register begun in 1996. If you have information on any others, please
email Phil Curme
with, if possible, details of the specific location, name, regiment and date, condition of  the cross and details of any other inscriptions.

Phil will be happy to help me update this version of the list and pass new information to those maintaining the Register.


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