Barbara Price, member of All Saints, Sedgley has spent hourscataloguing and researching 294 soldiers who died in the First World War fromthe local area. She now has individual profiles on all the men who died and hasvisited many of the graves in England, France and Belgium. Her efforts are dueto be bound into a book to be held at All Saints Church in time for the 100thanniversary of the end of the war in November and Barbara is looking for helpbefore then to make sure she has as much information on each individual aspossible.
Barbara said: I began researching my Great Uncle whoappears on the memorial at All Saints Church and discovered that his cousinwas also on there. From there its just spiralled I widened my research to coverall the names listed at All Saints and then other churches asked me to helpresearch the names on their memorials!
On a visit to Lichfield Cathedral, Barbara found the namesof all the soldiers in the Staffordshire Regiment who lived locally, some ofwhom werent remembered on any other memorial. Other soldiers on the memorialshad served in Canadian Regiments. Altogether I discovered that 294 soldiersdied and 442 returned from the First World War, continued Barbara. It reallybrought home the impact that the war had on the local community.
Barbara has recorded as much information as she can find oneach individual profile using information from the Commonwealth War GravesCommission, census records and family history websites. Where possible she hasadded photographs of the soldiers or of their graves/ memorials. My husbandand I have visited 106 different cemeteries and managed to photograph 256graves, said Barbara. Often it feels like were the only people who have evervisited from home, but sometimes others have been before and left photos orother mementos. Its been a tremendous experience and has had a real emotionalimpact on us. Its important to us that this research is shared with others.
The profiles of the soldiers that Barbara has compiled willbe available for people to see at All Saints Church Hall in Sedgley this weekend. It is hoped that other local people might have records of their familymembers with information which can be added to the profiles before the book isproduced. If you think you can help, please contact the team at ww1archive@allsaintssedgley.co.uk.
