The Flackwell Heath War Memorial, designed by Thomas Thurlow, a Wycombe architect and co-owner of the Flackwell Heath Golf Club, was unveiled in 1921. He, himself, had lost a nephew in The Great War. Much has changed in the village over the last century, as the SWOP photographs on the following pages will testify, but the War Memorial has always remained well tended throughout the passing decades. Although it has lost its original railings (for the War effort in WW2) it has been dressed afresh each Remembrance Day with poppy wreaths and crosses. Sadly more names were added after the Second World War but these do not feature in this present website – that's a project for the future.
To find the information on the men on the memorial please click on the poppy below. Or to find out more, scroll down to continue reading.
So who are the men named on its four faces after the First World War? Were they fathers, sons, brothers, husbands? How old were they and when and where did they lay down their lives for King and Country? These were the questions that I set out to answer in my quest to bring these soldiers to the forefront of our minds today, enabling us to have a greater understanding of each of them as individuals, and of the times in which they lived. It has kept me busy and fully occupied for the past year. I have found it emotionally draining, poignant and educational... but such a privilege to peep into each of their lives. And what of the names who may have been omitted from the Memorial? They, too, made the ultimate sacrifice and should not be forgotten.
RESEARCHED BY RUTH BOWLER 2012/ 2013
All information on this site copyright Ruth Bowler
The Missing Names
(all had local connections)
Ernest Barton
Albert Victor Keefe
Edgar Lewis
Leonard George Savill
Frank Stone-Wootton
George James Weedon
If you can provide further information on any of the men who went to serve in The Great War from this village please contact me at Bowlerre@aol.com.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Grateful thanks to the following for their help and support:
Sue Norton (Little Marlow War Memorial researcher)
June Underwood (Buckinghamshire Remembers)
Barrie Thorpe (Author of “The Men of Wooburn War
Memorial)
Ian Wilson (Local World War researcher and tour Guide)
Stephen Berridge ( Oxford & Bucks Battalion researcher)
Mike Willoughby ( War memorial researcher)
The Royal British legion (Flackwell Heath branch)
The Committee members of the Flackwell Heath and Loudwater Local History Group
Clint Lawson (Index of Newspaper references for Bucks Men who served in WW1)
OTHER SOURCES USED
Ancestry.co.uk
Bucks Free Press archives
Findmypast.co.uk
Military archival material
Information from descendants
