War Memorials Project

We are delighted with the interest and enthusiasm already expressed by a number of Heritage Wardens and local people in Leicestershire and Rutland. We also want to thank those who have offered to share knowledge on war memorials that have already been recorded.

This project is part of a larger County Council and Armed Services project to erect a Leicestershire war memorial to those who have given their lives for their country since 1945 in military actions and develop other ways of honouring serving Services men and women.

This document lists all the work underway so far, and acts as a continuing register for those taking part in the pilot project. Please let us know which war memorials you are interested in and what work you are doing. This will be updated regularly as more information comes in. Research Register (.Doc)

We are compiling an index for all war memorials in Leicestershire and Rutland, so please get in touch to find out what we have on record if you are interested in carrying out research.

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) began an extensive project to record information countrywide about war memorials, including basic data about their condition) and they have collected around 900 Leicestershire records.

At present their database, the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, does not make photographs, names or biographical information available online.

A particular emphasis of our project will be on finding out information about individuals who have died in conflicts, and are commemorated (or not), since WWII.

This is an opportunity to involve people in all local communities in a project of considerable historical significance which takes the IWM material further, giving it added value because our project will include more categories of information.  

Furthermore, the condition of war memorials in some communities is giving cause for concern – indeed, a pilot survey of Croft’s memorials revealed that all that remains of one particular memorial is a photograph at the Record Office.  

This Project will record the condition of local memorials before it is too late to do anything about their preservation.

The Priorities for the project are:

Priority 1: Recording existing and ‘lost’ war memorials across the counties of Leicestershire and Rutland and the details of local individuals killed as a result of armed conflicts since 1945.  

Priority 2: Extending the data with gravestone information and/or personal detail about those persons recorded as desired by the volunteer participants.

The project will be open to any local person but is aimed primarily at heritage and archaeological wardens and will be formally closed only when the primary recording is complete

If you are interested in contributing to the War Memorials Project, please contact:

Project Co-ordinator Elizabeth Blood
Phone - 0116 267 0004
Email - warmemorials@leics.gov.uk