At the Eton Wick History Group meeting in February, I spoke briefly about the above Project which came into being in the early 1990's and is on-going. Throughout the country memorials sprang up commemorating the dead of the two World Wars but no one thought to make a record of them or their location. It would appear that some have ended up in skips when a Church, hospital or other public building has been demolished. This angered members of the public and prompted 'the powers that be' to act.
The Imperial War Museum was given funding to enable the project to get started and many groups were approached to help including the British Legion, the Western Front Association and the Women's Institutes. Now with further funding, three full time staff and two volunteers, all the information obtained (plans, photographs, newspaper cutting and the written matter) is being put on computer and will eventually be available to researchers.
If anyone knows of a memorial which they think may have been missed because it is in an obscure place, do please let me, or Frank, know. It is as a W.I. member that I have sent the project details of all the memorials in Eton, Eton Wick and Boveney (which I know of), fourteen in all, with the exception of the one to Charles Horatio Hobbs, formerly Engineer in the Eton Fire Brigade who was killed at Kroonstad, South Africa on July 4th 1900. His memorial tablet is on the wall outside the offices of the Eton Town Council. This building, of course, was originally the Eton Fire Station.
I have not been able to discover when the tablet was dedicated. Does anyone know whether the minutes of the Eton Volunteer Fire Brigade have survived and if so where they are?
| Colnbrook (buckinghamshireremembers.org.uk) |
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