We are researching the names that appear on the WW1 Roll of Honour in St John the Baptist Church in Caversham. We believe there are some spelling mistakes or errors as we are unable to trace a number of the men. If you believe you may be related to any of them, please contact us. The surnames are Appleby, Ayling, Bawden, Belcher, Bennett, Boxell, Bristow, Bryant, Cannon, Carter, Cleare, Crane, Davis, Dunn, Evans, Fuller, Gunstone, Hissey, Kidby, Knight, Leach, Lock, Marcham, Maskill, Mitcham, Morgan, Nash, Neale, Nicholls, Painter, Palmer, Pearce, Pike, Purvey, Reeves, Roberts, Sheppard, Shorter, Simmonds, Snow, Stokes, Townsend, Watts, Wheeler, White and Young. Thank you.
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WW1 Roll of Honour St John the Baptist, Caversham, Reading, UK
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These men must have had a connection with Caversham to be commemorated there but that was around 100 yrs ago and family may since have moved elsewhere. 100 years is also the time span for four generations and a simple list of surnames would not necessarily resonate with any family living elsewhere today.
All these casualties should be recorded on www.cwgc.org , which may provide some details for you. Two such may be Pte. Edward John Cleare, 19, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, died 27/3/1918, son of Eliza Cleare and late Alfred Cleare of 136 Gosbrook Road, Caversham, Reading, and, Pte. James Marcham, 25, Royal Berkshire Regt., died 3/9/1916, son of James & Annie Marcham, Aldworth, Reading. If you are able to provide the full names, or even initials, as well as Regiment or ship etc,, that would help considerably but a search of CWGC may prove productive.
merleyone
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Caroline
Caroline's Family History Pages
Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
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Thank you for all your responses.
We started with the CWGC but either the surnames are notspelt correctly on the Roll of Honour or the initials aren’t correct for many.We would like our research to be accurate to the very best of our knowledge andare not prepared to follow leads just because the surname matches. We have usedCWGC, Freebmd, 1881 to 1911 census, local electoral rolls, Medal indexes,Casualty records, WW1 Wills and trawled through several volumes of the localpaper, where we have found photos/addresses for some but these still don’t alwaystie in with the CWGC. We have been unable to locate the original paperworkcommissioning the Roll of Honour if indeed it still exists.
These names are no longer just names to us butmen who had families and we would like to find out as much accurate informationabout each individual as possible. If the names are misspelt on the Roll ofHonour, it must have been sad for the families left behind some of whom mayhave looked at the Roll on a weekly basis.
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Unfortunately I have also seen many memorials with what (in the face of all the other evidence) appear to be wrong initials or wrongly spelt surname. I have also come across individuals who are commemorated on more than one (in one case 5!) memorial. It is all very difficult and also sad. One wonders what the relatives thought at the time? As I understand it, each local memorial was locally agreed upon and there was little co-ordination between towns/villages/churches.
Anne
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The name of a great uncle of mine appears on three different WWI memorials - one in the village where he was born, one in the town he was living in when he signed up and the other in the village great uncle's father was living in when great uncle died.
Might there be any papers of the Caversham parish council archives that give any leads to who these men were/who proposed their inclusion etc?
STGAlways looking for Goodwins in Berkshire.
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I see you also put this enquiry on Family Tree Magazine. The fullest reply you received included this comment:
"It's a lovely idea that your researching these men but can I make a suggestion?
Can you add their first names?"
That basically echos my initial response when you first started this thread. The way to make progress is to enlist the help of military enthusiasts and others by drip feeding small numbers of names with as much detail as possible. Swamping them with a large list of surnames, many likely to have been spelled incorrectly, will put potential help off except in the case of the more unusual names. Having said that, if the memorial lists nothing but surnames then you do have a problem.
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Hi Sally,
I've just joined this forum and came across your post dates 26/03/15 and was wondered if you found out any information on the name purvey. This would be my great grand mother brother. Could you confirm the first and middle name initials if any so i can specifically pin it to which brother. I know Edward Purvey died during WW1.
I would be very appreciative if you give any information you have on the surname Purvey and will be very happy to share what ever i find out for you. I have Edward Purvey Service NumberM2/167728, Died 13/04/1918, Aged 28402nd Mechanical Transport Coy. attd. 4th Canadian Siege Bty.Army Service Corps
Son of Mr. and Mrs. Purvey, of Caversham, Reading; husband of Eliza Hilda Purvey, of 14, Hilcot Rd., Reading, Berks.
My best wishes and hope to hear from you soon.
Jeremy Blake
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Hi Jeremy and welcome to FTF
Sally hasn't been on the forum for some time. So may I suggest that you send her a Private Message by clicking on her name and you will see the box come up. She should get an e-mail telling her that she has a message, as long as her e-mail address hasn't changed.Chrissie passed away in January 2020.
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WW1 Roll of Honour, St John the Baptist, Caversham, Reading, Berks
Originally posted by Sally Corps View PostWe are researching the names that appear on the WW1 Roll of Honour in St John the Baptist Church in Caversham. We believe there are some spelling mistakes or errors as we are unable to trace a number of the men. If you believe you may be related to any of them, please contact us. The surnames are Appleby, Ayling, Bawden, Belcher, Bennett, Boxell, Bristow, Bryant, Cannon, Carter, Cleare, Crane, Davis, Dunn, Evans, Fuller, Gunstone, Hissey, Kidby, Knight, Leach, Lock, Marcham, Maskill, Mitcham, Morgan, Nash, Neale, Nicholls, Painter, Palmer, Pearce, Pike, Purvey, Reeves, Roberts, Sheppard, Shorter, Simmonds, Snow, Stokes, Townsend, Watts, Wheeler, White and Young. Thank you.
Hi Sally. I came across this quite by accident when doing some Family History research. I believe the name PALMER that you have mentioned is possibly that of my Great Grandfather who lived in Bryants Avenue, Caversham. I have quite a lot of information on him. He was killed on 24th March 1918 in Flavy-le-Martel in France. I would be happy to furnish you with further details if they would be of use. I am hoping to visit St John the Baptist church tomorrow, 11/12/18, in order to see the memorial myself.
Mark SMITH
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Hi Mark Thank you for contacting us. I understand you did get to St Johns this morning and later spoke to my mum. We will keep in touch and look up what we have on your great grandfather. Some of those on the Roll of Honour were remembered on 11th November by a poppy with the soldier's name and details on lamp posts outside their former homes around parts of Caversham. I'm not sure who put these up but it was lovely.
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I've been doing the same thing for the War Memorial in my home town of Fareham, Hampshire.
Something else to consider is who made the memorial. Checking local newspapers etc. may provide a lead and, if you are extremely lucky, they may be some records somewhere or be still in business. My own quest proved the point in case when I found that the business who produced the one in Fareham was still in business! The bad news was that due to GDPR the old records had been destroyed!!
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Thank you for your suggestions. We have been to the Oxfordshire Record Office as Caversham was part of Oxfordshire until it became part of Berkshire. They had information on the Rood in St Johns but nothing on the Roll of Honour unfortunately. The Berkshire Record Office weren't able to help. We have scoured the local newspaper for information/photos on the soldiers and been fairly successful on that. However, we could try looking after the war for information on the Roll of Honour itself - thank you for that suggestion.
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