SUPPORTING LOCAL WAR MEMORIALS
I was delighted to is back an important initiative to support local war memorials.
The initiative from Imperial War Museum London (IWM), calls on the public to help document and verify the archives and records with regards to the UK’s important war memorials. Through the amazing work of volunteers and local communities, the initiative aims to complete as many of our national records as possible before Remembrance Day on Friday the 11th of November 2022.
War memorials across the UK play a central and important role in the heart of our communities in remembering those who served and tragically lost their lives in service of our country. They also offer a physical and significant space for families to remember and honour those who gave their lives, while also allowing a place to come together as a community.
IWM and their team of dedicated volunteers do a fantastic job in selflessly giving up their spare time to walk around these sites of local and national importance and ensure that every name is carefully noted down, and that these sensitive and important memorials are properly photographed and recorded for posterity.
IWM’s War Memorials Register aims to compile a comprehensive and accurate record of all of the UK’s war memorials, and to make this resource freely available to the public.
The War Memorials Register currently holds records of 96,000 war memorials across the United Kingdom, although there are an estimated 110,000 in total. IWM’s records are constantly updated and added to in order to improve the accuracy and depth of the information available.
Photographs are an important part of the Register, but currently around 46,000 (45%) of the existing records are lacking good images. Many more are simply unaccounted for, hidden away in the backs of converted schools and churches that are now private homes, or overgrown on walls in quiet parts of a village.
It is right that these sensitive and important memorials are properly photographed and recorded for posterity, and I urge anyone with a spare hour to visit IWM’s memorials website and see what they can do to help at https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials
