Details of memorial survey

Jul 10 2008 by Val Javin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

I AM sorry that Mr Ellam feels so negative about Kirklees Council’s war memorial survey being placed online. (Letters July 7)

I think he has misunderstood the scope and aims of this survey and also confused war memorials (permanent public expressions of mourning for local men and women lost in conflicts) with war graves (the burial places of individuals who died while in the armed forces.)

The ‘national memorial register’ he mentions as being in the library is in fact a list of war graves of the Great War (the Second World War is not so covered) in Huddersfield cemeteries.

The intention of the Kirklees project is to place online a survey of all war memorials in Kirklees, using as a starting point the existing survey started many years ago by Huddersfield Military History Society (a paper copy of which is in the Local History Library).

The online survey will, however, have many improvements, including photos of all the memorials, and be searchable for individual names. Hopefully it will also attract more entries, since it is by no means comprehensive at the moment.

I know from my own experience when working for Kirklees Museums that people around the world, family historians like Mr Ellam, are searching for public memorials which include the name of ancestors lost in wars.

This online survey will be a significant new resource for them.

I think Clr Sheard’s initiative, backed by the council, is to be applauded, as is his readiness to invite on to the panel members of the veterans’ groups and others such as myself with an interest in military history.

The panel was well aware of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website and other sources for the details of individuals who died in wars, but there is no intention in the project to research details of individuals.

The work of researching Huddersfield people who died in the two world wars has in fact already been done by two private researchers.

However, similar research has not been done for the majority of the rest of Kirklees.

Mr Ellam’s point about the damage and loss of war memorials is well made; there have been a number of such instances reported in the Examiner in recent years.

The survey, by bringing memorials to more public attention, may help to reduce this damage and, by recording them, would at least assist in their restoration should vandalism occur.

I should point out that Kirklees Council is not responsible for the great majority of memorials, which are in churches and churchyards, clubs, and private premises.

I hope this has clarified what the aims of the Kirklees survey are and that Mr Ellam will be willing to contribute his valuable research to the project

John Rumsby

Edgerton