About Our Website
This blog is dedicated to and will tell the story of the men and women of Great Britain and her colonies and other Commonwealth countries who gave their lives fighting for freedom in the Great War of 1914 to 1918, also now known as World War I.
This is the story of the parents who gave their lives to God and the parents who gave their lives to their King and country and then lost their sons and daughters to the war fought for that God and King and country.
It is the story of Princes and paupers, brothers and sisters, hero’s and supposed cowards They all have one thing in common – they did not survive the Great War, the conflict described by H G Wells as “The war to end war”.Every death is a personal and family tragedy.
The uniformity of the many thousands of headstones in cemeteries has something impersonal about it. All of these identical grave markers in a way make it hard to fully realize that each headstone and memorial represents a unique person, with his or her own personality, history, social and familial background, every story representing a different tragedy.
- Men whose sons will be killed in the Second World War
- Generals and sons of Generals
- Clergymen and sons of clergymen
- Fathers and sons who will both be killed
- Members of the Peerage and Knights and their sons
- Brothers killed together and those killed miles and years apart
- Those killed by enemy action, those killed accidentally, those who died of illness and those killed by their comrades
- And many more
Starting this August 2014 we will provide daily the names and personal histories of those who one hundred years ago on that day lost their lives as a result of the tragedy now called the First World War. We will give you historical perspective of what was going on at the time but this is the story of those who did not live out their lives naturally as a result of the Great War.
The expression is ‘the war to end all war’ and is the title of a booklet written by H G Wells in 1914 this is often misquoted as ‘the war to end all wars’.
Excellent information, thank you.
Dear Great War Lives Lost
Now following your blog website as part of my research since 2009 into how WW1 and WW2 affected zoos, botanic gardens, gardeners plant hunters and scientists.
In case it is of interest to you, I have researched and posted brief biographies of the staff of ZSL London Zoo, Belle Vue Zoo Manchester, RBG Kew Gardens, Linnean Society and British Ecological Society so far amongst others, based on their war memorials and rolls of honour.
Other organisations like RBGE Edinburgh and RHS Wisley are posting their own lists / blogs.
Hopefully this will provide some interesting stories for commemoration on the relevant day on your blog.
The names and dates of death etc are on posts on this blog http://worldwarzoogardener1939.wordpress.com in case this helps you with your daily tally.
I have also done this for my local village War memorial at Devoran
http://devoranwarmemorial.wordpress.com
Keep up the hard work – a busy 5 years ahead.
Mark Norris, World War Zoo Gardens project
And Devoran War Memorial project
May I ask what source material you are working with? Are there any archives you might suggest for somebody embarking on an extended research project on the Great War?
I have a personal library that is rather extensive including battle and regimental histories. I search libraries for the same, I have purchased the Times of London for the entire war, the internet to get initial ideas and of course the Commonwealth Graves War Commission site. Good luck, I have been researching this for over 30 years.
Sounds like quite a project over thirty years! Thank you!
A labor of love.
I googled Canon F.S.Thornton and came up with your website…yet there appears to be nothing there when I enter! His youngest son, Archibald Clement Thornton, died on 21 Nov 2015, fighting for the Canadians. The elder son, Major Frederick Edward Thornton, died in Mesopotamia in 1917, fighting with the 105th Mahrattas. Can you help me out, please?
Posted on the blog 21 Nov 1915 (Search that date and greatwarliveslost) second sons loss will be posted on the post on 25 March next year,
Private Archibald Clement Thornton (Central Ontario Regiment) is killed. His brother will be killed in March 1917 and they are sons of Canon F S Thornton JP Rector of Downham.
Major Frederick Edward Thornton (Mahratta Light Infantry formerly Royal Scots Fusiliers) is killed. He is the son of the Reverend Canon F S Thornton JP Rector of Downham.
You have Percy Dale Kendall dying twice. He dies on both the 21st and 25th of January.
Thanks for the heads up I will investigate
Sorry wrong release date, it is now been released and I am back on sync. Currently on vacation.
I was interested in your comment about the uniformity of the CWGC headstones and how this makes it difficult to realise that each represents a personal story of loss.
For this reason my wife and I are three years in to a Pilgrimage to visit each and every headstone across Belgium and France. At each grave the name is read aloud and a simple thank you is said. Currently we have visited 617 burial grounds and said 394,197 thank-you’s.
Our Pilgrimage is SomeKindHand
An amazing journey you have undertaken. I just saw your SomeKindHand on the web, continued good luck and safe travels.
My G.Great grandfather died 100 years ago today and is buried in Amara.
Do you have another list of people or is this blog all the information you provide please?
Well done and regards
Tina
These are people I have been able find additional information about. If you want information about your g great grandfather go to cwgc.org and do a search. Good luck.
I stumbled across your page while doing research on my Grandfather who served in the Great war I. When my aunt died I came int possession of papers and photos he had taken. One of the documents is his journey of enlistment and going over Ireland to join the Royal Irish Rifles with his Cousin. Then being part of the Royal Engineers and his trips to take communications. Thank you for you post!
Came across this while checking on Australian artist married to British soldier who died shortly after marriage… Your site is fascinating and I plan to print it out and pursue it with great interest. The Conan connection is very interesting and so many families who lost 5 sons is sad. I want to do my own research on these people. My grandfather joined the Canadian army at 15, lying about his age and fought at the Somme and other major battles. He made it home and we are fortunate he did otherwise our family wouldn’t be here. If yoiu can give me hints of where to look for further info on these people I would appreciate that especially the sons, did the lines die out? What happened to parents other siblings? Thank you for all this wonderful (yet sad) information.
Internet searches are the best way to find the information conserning specific individuals. The CWGC.org location will give you some specifics about individuals but you need names.