The Validity of Names on War Memorials
The validity of the appearance of any person’s name appearing on a war memorial is reliant on the local “committee” at the time that makes such decisions, often well after the actual dates when the events or deaths occurred.
Ringwood Memorial After the Great War
After the Great War in Ringwood, land was acquired in 1921 from Greyfriars, and a memorial design selected. A local group researched and advised the town council of those entitled to appear, to be added them to seven of the eight panels around the base. Some smaller ones below later added a few more, including two from our area.
Post-WW2 Memorial Updates
Post WW2 a similar process took place, and a large panel angled across the front contained those results. Two omissions were later added below those columns, one being the only woman, a nurse.
All Saints Church and New Plaque
By then, our civil parish had been established and this plaque was provided within the surviving 1912 “All Saints” church. It was transferred to the west wall of the new one in 1972.
Role of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
With the “Fallen Dead” of both wars scattered around the globe, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission later took on the recording of individual’s details, principally from service records. In 2000 three local men had gathered together these CWG forms that covered most of the memorial listings up and down the Avon Valley, and provided displays annually at the Meeting House. Their three sets of files were donated by their families. They accompany my annual November “Lest We Forget” displays to maintain this tradition.
Ringwood Town Council and the Centenary Lantern
In August 2014, Ringwood Town Council realised they needed to react to my WW1 centenary display in July, proposing a lantern that would be illuminated on the actual day that anyone named on the memorial had died, using my records for the dates.
However, their decision included a plan to dedicate the lantern on 3rd September, an anniversary date for the outbreak of WW2. This added an extra 53 names to be added to the 111 for WW1 that needed to be researched … but almost all 164 were within the programme by the end of August.
The original “lantern”, one of the Christmas lighting set, was only intended to be in use until the November, but was then extended for a further year, twelve months. Finally, in 2018 this special lantern was installed, a unique feature throughout the UK, probably the world.
War Memorials and Family Records
Throughout this world, dedicated war memorials for “British and Commonwealth” war dead exist, and the Meeting House has numerous details on file of individual’s families’ pictures and personal records and memorials.
Sister Dorothy Anyta Field
Earlier mention of a nurse added to the Ringwood Memorial concerns Sister Dorothy Anyta Field, who died helping save 75 wounded men when her hospital ship sank off Juno Beach in 1944. She and a colleague are unique in also being the only two women named on the British War Memorial at Bayeux. Since then they have retained that status on the 2024 one near Gold Beach.
Remembering the Sacrifices
To all who continue to remember our personal experiences of WW2, the lack of respect for these edifices, including the Cenotaph and its like elsewhere, the unsolicited counter protests and vandalism of today are a serious concern for the future of any remembrance of such supreme sacrifices, whether contractual or voluntary, that so many have made in the past.
My Personal Experiences
In my own case, these relate to my experiences as a schoolboy resident throughout WW2 in North London, plus my service in the Royal Navy as a volunteer aged 16 in 1946, and retirement 25 years later in 1970 as a Boatswain (PR).
Please call me on 01202 875512
JOHN HAWKINS
