THE  DOVER WAR MEMORIAL  PROJECT

 

war memorial at dusk, photographed by Michelle Cooper


Types of Commemoration

 

There is often confusion regarding commemoration, and from this misunderstandings and misconceptions can arise. Below is a clarification.


CIVIC COMMEMORATION

1. The Dover Town Memorial is a civic memorial

2. Civic memorials are erected and maintained by a local authority – eg county, district, city, borough, town, parish councils

3. The local authority/citizenry decide on the form of and criteria for commemoration

4. Casualties may be remembered on any number of civic memorials; commemoration on one does not preclude commemoration on another

5.Many casualties commemorated on Dover Town Memorial are remembered on civic memorials elsewhere:

Examples include:

Walter Tull, commemorated on River parish memorial, Folkestone Town Memorial, also in Glasgow
Tommy Eaves, commemorated at Deal town Victoria War Memorial Hospital
Albert Alderson, commemorated on the parish memorials at River and Temple Ewell
Frank Balding, commemorated on the town memorial at Louth, Lincolnshire
Alfred Siffleet, commemorated on the memorial at Eythorne
Alexander Croockewit, commemorated on the memorial at Shepherdswell
George Collard, commemorated on the Parish memorial at Alkham
Peter Mello, commemorated on the town memorial at Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex
Walter Corteen, commemorated on the town memorial at King’s Lynn, Norfolk
William Friend, commemorated on the parish memorial at Hougham
William Frampton, commemorated on the town memorial at Slaidburn, Yorkshire
Albert Samways, commemorated on the town memorial at Wareham, Dorset
William Foreman, commemorated on the town memorial at Whistable
Keith Gillman, commemorated on the parish memorial at River
Albert Bourner, commemorated on the parish memorial at River
Charles Laing, commemorated on the town memorial at Canterbury
Charles Godfrey, commemorated on the town memorial at Margate

6. There are many civic memorials in other countries

7. Civic memorials in other countries also record casualties on Dover Town Memorial, who served in forces of different nationalities

Examples include:

Edward King, commemorated on Brant County Memorial, Ontario, Canada
Thomas Claringbould
, commemorated on Brant County Memorial, Ontario, Canada 

8. A civic memorial is distinct from government commemoration (Commonwealth War Graves Commission- CWGC)

 

GOVERNMENT COMMEMORATION

1. Casualties may have only one official government commemoration (but any number of civic and community commemorations). There are some exceptions, for example, airmen whose bodies are recovered over many decades.

An example is:

John Joseph Brimble, who is buried in two officially-commemorated graves, at Sittingbourne and Brookward Military Cemetery

2. Casualties may be remembered on civic memorials and on the official government commemoration (CWGC)

3. Lists of casualties commemorated by the CWGC do not correspond fully with people commemorated on civic memorials. 

Reasons for this include:

a) the casualty on the civic memorial died outside the dates set for commemoration by the CWGC(4 August 1914 to 31 August 1921 and 3 September 1939 to 31 December 1947)
an example on our Town Memorial is Walter Mills, died 1922

b) the CWGC charter does not yet include Great War civilian casualties
an example of a civic memorial listing them is Margate
c) the CWGC records are incomplete
new casualties are added to CWGC records every year, through voluntary work from individuals and groups
local casualties added through KentFallen include:
from Dover, William Dixon, added December 2008
from Dover, William May, added December 2008
from Dover, Cecil Sambrook, added January 2009
from River, William Inwood, added January 2008
from Tilmanstone, Albert Husk, added February 2008

from Dover

d) civic war memorial records are incomplete
i) the records are gathered in a different way from the way the CWGC records are gathered
ii) the records are gathered under different criteria from the way the CWGC records are gathered

hence the many people who qualify but are not commemorated on our War Memorial
and why we in Dover have a procedure for new commemorations every three years for relatives who request them

4. Civic war memorials often include those who served and survived

5. There are community commemorations  as well as civic and government commemorations

 

COMMUNITY COMMEMORATION

1. Community war memorials are erected and maintained by community groups - eg work-place, church, military, school, social club, etc

2. Casualties may be remembered on any number of community war memorials as well as on civic war memorials and the one government commemoration

Examples include:
Daniel Wyborn, commemorated on the SECR memorial at the Marine Station, and the Salem Baptist    memorial (note, others on the Town Memorial are also commemorated on the SECR)
Tommy Eaves, commemorated on memorials at the Deal Parochial School, St Martin’s school, Dover Boys’ Grammar, and Marjon College in Plymouth
Edward King, commemorated on the memorial at the Massey works, Brantford, Ontario
Thomas Bidgood, commemorated at Haileybury School, Hertfordshire
Arthur Leyland-Harrison VC, commemorated on the memorial at Dover College
Edward Crascall, commemorated on the Christchurch church memorial
Keith Gillman, commemorated on the Foxley-Norris wall at the Battle of Britain memorial, Capel-le-Ferne and the Battle of Britain memorial on the Victoria Embankment, London
Albert Bourner, commemorated on the memorial at St Martin of Tours church, Dover
 

There are, according to the National Inventory of War Memorials, some 100,000 war memorials in the UK. There are many more overseas. There has been a certain amount of research into multiple commemorations, but given that there is no central catalogue of commemorations on these war memorials, that all war memorials are not listed, and that there is often difficulty in definitively identifying casualties, it is currently impossible to establish all the memorials on which a particular casualty may be commemorated.  Equally, it is difficult to establish that a casualty is not commemorated anywhere, though our research into Dovorian casualties has identified a number, with especial reference to civilian casualties of the Great War.

Comments on the above are welcome. Please contact us


Copyright 2012 © Marilyn Stephenson-Knight. All Rights Reserved