War Memorial – Message from Historian

I am very fortunate that my day job is as a professional academic military historian. Much of my research is into the lives of individual soldiers, both Other Ranks and officers, of the First and Second World Wars. It is one thing to look at the high levels of conflict, from the perspective of kings, prime ministers and generals. But to look at the experience of ordinary soldiers brings a whole new dimension to the study of war. While researching generalship and battles it is far too easy to read an entry in an official war diary which says something like ‘five privates and an NCO killed by shellfire’ and to ignore the fact that behind these bleak statistics lay real people, who had families, careers, hopes and dreams, and since most of these casualties were quite young, lives that should have stretched out before them. Reading the letters, diaries, and accounts left by these men (and sometimes women) brings home the human tragedy of war and the starkest way possible.

Reading a war memorial helps to personalise the cruel arithmetic of war. There, mere statistics become names, but all too often they remain just that – obscure names on a plaque, obelisk or stone cross. I have lost count of the number of times that I have read such a list of names, and wondered what stories lay behind their deaths. So I am very pleased indeed that Grove Parish Church has carried out this initiative, and so now we know details of the lives of the men commemorated on the parish war memorial. Although we live in Wantage, we worship at the Church of St. John the Baptist, Grove, and so I have become very familiar with the litany of names of the fallen of the parish which are read out every Remembrance Sunday. I did a little research of my own into some of these people a few years ago, but I am immensely impressed by the sheer depth of research into individuals that is presented here. Trevor Hancock, who carried it out, deserves the thanks and congratulations of everyone in the Parish.

The last surviving British soldier of the First World War died over a decade ago, and so I think we can say that that war has finally passed into history. At some point in the not-too-distant future the last surviving serviceman or servicewoman of the Second World War will similarly pass away. This pamphlet and website will help ensure that not only that Grove’s fallen will not be forgotten – as long as the War Memorial lasts their names will be read – but perhaps more importantly we know something about who they were, what they did, and how they died. As President of the Western Front Association, the U.K.’s leading society concerned with research and commemoration of the First World War, I applaud this venture, which is something of a model of its kind. As a historian I am fascinated by the richness of the material that is presented here. It is an important contribution to the history of our area. Finally, as a local resident, I am so pleased that the men from Grove who did not come home from the Great War of 1914 to 1918, and the Second World War of 1939 to 1945 have an additional memorial. This will help us to keep them in our thoughts in the decades to come.

Professor Gary Sheffield MA Ph D FRHistS FRSA
Honorary President, The Western Front Association
7 December 2020