A Millennium Project initiated by the Friends of
Leatherhead Parish Church,
now with Leatherhead & District Local History Society
LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS PROJECT
How it started
 Leatherhead Town War Memorial, North Street |
Liam Sumption and the Leatherhead and District Local History SocietyLiam Sumption came to Leatherhead in 1983 on his retirement from HM Customs. He was able to indulge his interest in researching and writing on military history. He was a keen member of the Leatherhead & District Local History Society. In the early 1990s he became interested in those named on the Leatherhead War Memorial in North Street. He eventually deposited with the Society his considerable handwritten research on those who were World War I casualties under the title Taken, Not Given. We are grateful to the Society for access to Liam's material. The current researchers are full of admiration and thanks for the work Liam accomplished on the background of the actions in which each death occurred. Though a non-driver Liam painstakingly visited many locations to gather information in the days before the internet. We fully acknowledge his work and are gradually adding it to this website. Liam moved to Guildford and died in London in 2010. |
1998 The Friends and Leatherhead Royal British Legion
The Friends of Leatherhead Parish Church and Leatherhead RBL appealed for the names of any who appeared to be missing from the town's war memorials. At the time this was thought likely to involve the inter-war 'policing' actions and the post-war conflicts, notably Korea, Malaya, Cyprus, Indonesia, Aden, The Falklands, The Gulf, and possibly other active service casualties such as on UN peacekeeping or Northern Ireland duties.
In November 1998 research was greatly aided by the launch of the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Debt of Honour on-line
database of all who gave their lives in WWI or WWII on service with
British or Commonwealth forces. It is a wonderful resource.
Those who have visited any CWGC cemetery know what a marvellous job they
do. Please visit the CWGC website - see it via Useful Links
on the left of your screen.
The In
from the Cold Project website has a useful page about the
scope of the CWGC listings.
1999 Ian Whitlock in the Leatherhead Advertiser
In February 1999, the Leatherhead Advertiser began a series of articles based on research by a local WWI specialist, Ian Whitlock. Working from a recently issued database of the WWI dead, drawn from publications that listed them, he found some names of men born or resident in Leatherhead that were apparently missing from the Town War Memorial. Ian generously accepted an invitation from Frank Haslam of the Friends to work together alongside local churches and interest groups on further research.
2009 Leatherhead and District Local History Society Local War Memorials Project
Frank Haslam, who was then website editor for L&DLHS, set up the Local War Memorials Project with the Society, in order to create websites similar to Leatherhead's for neighbouring villages. Where possible this is done with the help of local history societies. These include Ashtead, Box Hill, Effingham, Fetcham, Great Bookham, Little Bookham, Mickleham and Oxshott. Some now have their own war memorial websites.
| 2016 Lorraine Spindler's book Leatherhead in the Great
War Lorraine was at that time Curator of Leatherhead Museum. She runs her own regular battlefield tours to Ypres and the Somme, and weekly classes in local history and genealogy. Her book was published by Pen & Sword in 2016 (softback, 144 pages). Making use of a small sample of those who died, and looking at some survivors, Lorraine made extensive use of local and national archive material to paint a fascinating picture of the impact of the Great War on this small Surrey town - for example the Tribunals that took place to decide whether a man's services could be deferred and for how long. She acknowledged the work being done on this project. Lorraine continues to be of great help in providing research resources to assist in this project. The book can be obtained in good local bookshops, or on-line |
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Access to the Town War Memorial, North Street (as of November 2018)
The Town War Memorial had been used as a place of shelter by some visitors to Leatherhead. On occasion some had been abusive to those visiting the Memorial and there had been litter problems - and worse. It was decided some years ago that the memorial gates would be kept locked. Some would say it is a sad commentary on our times.
As a concession, a notice appeared on the Memorial gates with a phone number to call for an appointment to view the Memorial. The council said that they preferred that their representative would arrive and open the Memorial for visitors and then return later to lock it when the visitors had gone. They refused to consider opening the Memorial a single day of the week. A different arrangement now applies:
| The Help Shop
referred to in the notice is now in the Library in Church Street.
They will provide genuine visitors with a key to the War Memorial which must be returned no later than 4.30pm the same day. Their opening hours are currently: Sunday: Closed Monday: Closed Tuesday: 9:30am–4:30pm Wednesday: 9:30am–4:30pm Thursday: 9:30am–4:30pm Friday: 9:30am–4:30pm Saturday: 9:30am–4:30pm |
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