WAR MEMORIALS in The Charltons

The Charltons have a significant number of war memorials.  There are Rolls of Honour for WW1 in both churches (and the clock in Charlton Adam church); a collection of photographs of 17 of the WW1 casualties from both villages in the Reading Room; and, of course, there is the War Memorial itself (renovated in 2005), commemorating those who died in both WW1 & WW2 and also in the current conflict in Iraq.

The memorial which is less obvious though is the Memorial Playing Field next to the Community Hall.  The field was “given by the two villages in tribute to those who gave their lives in the last war” [Tidings, July 1952] and was dedicated on 14 June 1952 together with the Memorial Gates (those half way along the field, rather than the newer entrance to the Community Hall).  Originally, two memorial tablets were installed but, being bronze, they have gone the way of all things of any value which can be moved!  At that time the villages had an active branch of the British Legion who held their Annual Sports Day immediately after the dedication of the memorials.

The War Memorial itself was dedicated in 1930 and the old photo below also shows in the background the GWR station (R), which closed in 1962, and the lime kiln (L), which was demolished in 1968.

The Charltons Historical Society is continuing to research the veterans of the two wars, with the intention of producing a commemorative booklet.  We aim to tell the story of both the casualties and survivors of the wars, expanding on the bare lists of names from the various memorials.  Ongoing research has collected varying amounts of information, particularly about the casualties, mainly from official records.  We would still like more background information for all of them though, and have very little for those who served in WW2 - not even a full list of names.

Please contact us if you have any information or memories; if you have photographs, medals or other memorabilia, could we please copy or scan them?  However small your “snippet” may be it will be very welcome; as there were over 100 Charltons men in WW1 alone, don’t assume we already know it - we probably don’t!  We need your information now please - not after the booklet is published!

Known surnames of casualties and survivors from the First World War are:
ACKERMAN,  ANDREWS,  ATYEO,  BALE,  BLAKE,  BRAIN,  BROOKS,  CAMPBELL,  CANNON,  CAVE,  CHANCELLOR,  CROOM,  DAWES,  DUNN,  DYER,  EADES,  FIRMINGER,  GAIT,  GAYLARD,  GIBBS,  GRIMES,  GROWERSON,  HALLETT,  HANHAM,  HILBORNE,  HOBBS,  HODGES,  HOLLAND,  INGS,  JEANES,  JENNER,  LISTER,  LUCAS,  MANNING,  MAY,  MERRITT,  MOODY,  NICHOLAS,  NORRIS,  PARKER,  PERRY,  PULLINGER,  REEVES,  RICH,  SANDERS,  SEAGER,  SEELEY,  SIMS,  SMITH,  SUGAR,  TRIM,  WELSH,  WHELLER,  WILCOX,  WYATT