Warwick community invited to join in with online war memorial project

The Warwick Memorial Project, a new website, has been officially launched to create a go-to place for information about Warwick soldiers who died in the wars.

It has been created by volunteer group Unlocking Warwick, who are based at the Court House in Jury Street with the support of Warwick Town Council. The idea initially came from one of their members, Christine Shaw, who had noticed that one of her family members was missing from the War Memorial.

Christine said: “I got interested in the War Memorial when I noticed that my grandfather’s cousin, Clarence Capers, was not listed and should be as he lived all his life in Coten End.

“I then did some research and got Clarence’s name added. This was in the Courier in November 2015. Since I had done all of the research, it seemed a waste not to share it with others.

“The website was something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I went to see the Town Clerk, Jayne Topham, and she was really enthusiastic and said that she was sure that, if I applied, I would get some funding from the town council to set up the website.

“There are lots of other websites such as Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Imperial War Museum and so on which have some details, particularly around the military side of things.

“For me, the main point of this is to provide a focal point for Warwick that tried to show the human element in all this – for instance, how many people died from particular streets, where parents lost more than one son, and so on. Another aim was to provide somewhere to make comments such as nicknames soldiers were known by or whether someone was a swimming champion or sang in the choir and what they did for a living.”

Currently the website has information about the First World War and the team hope to develop the site to include more conflicts. Members of the community are now being asked to share any information or pictures that they have of family members who died in the First World War.

Christine said: “This is very much a work in progress and will rely on people sending in photos or sharing research that they have done. We are already collaborating with local historians, churches and schools and hope to do more in the coming months.

“Everyone is welcome to take any information from our website and include it in their family trees and own research projects.”

On the website there are stories, photographs and information about some of the soldiers listed on the War Memorial. There is also a section where people can submit their own items to the project.

There is a section for upcoming events in the town, such as marking anniversaries of battles and wars.

To submit any research or photographs or to see what is already on the website click here