Trench Art
More powerful than an epitaph
I am moved by holding these talismans, knowing they were inscribed by young men facing death.
The inscriptions are simple, but they tell us more than a tombstone. They are more powerful than an epitaph, because they were inscribed before death. They are more personal than an obituary, because they tell us the values the soldier held most dear - love, honour, faith, loyalty.
They provide emotional overtones to the stories that come from official records and ancestry sites.
THE CLUES
These are the inscriptions on the trench art in this collection - the keys to finding the stories. So many stories tumbled from these simple inscriptions.
ARTISTS REGIMENT 1st 28thKHP 766615
R ARNOLD 2362 RWKENT
G LOWRIE 9890 Royal Highlanders – Black Watch
R W BELL 125333 RFA
A A MORGAN 21382
J GREGORY 2745
E HOGBEN 22900
W K SCOTT 40379 NZR
H G GINGER 44 1652
E H LADD 5094 AFA
J H SINCLAIR2014
W F HILLMAN 3060 1916
W WILKINSON ALH 751
J ADAMS ICC 571 1916
T A DONALD 6952 16th AUSTRALIA
V DENTON 618 ALH
N KELLY2657
H HAMMOND 771 ALH
H L ROOTES 2989
R SAWYER 1905 H R
J GOUGH G H
L CASTLE 345369
W FISK RAMC 20294
G SMITH 1316 ROYAL HORSE GUARDS
W C 203255
T H O ADAMS 7919 RAF
O HOGG RN 1916 WINNIE
T LONG 1916
E GARRETT 241437
W PLATT 3411
B C BEAVER 62365
H T COBB A S H 303106
J GRAINGER E Y RT 15048
RFA PELHAM A 24711
S W BREWER 1807 THE BUFFS
HMS CONTEST T COLLINGS RN
490137 H BASS LOVE F RF
J GEDDIE 39484
T WEST 69457 XXIII
1916 F MICKLE MACHINEGUN CORPS 70569
W.WILLIAMS 2646
P.E.KING DR 10
A G CHENERY 6135
E J DICKS 235622
R M ARMOUR 241124
V BARNES OB RGT
BATEMAN 40908
F.W.LONGMAN Q W R 1916
T.KIDD 291674 1917
H.HALE
J.Hogg 20423 H.L.I
JOHN BRUNT 8760
W BOOTH RFC 33605
Cpl G.H.FORD 38747 M.G.C (H.B) France 1917
W.PELHAM C.E 8349 ROYAL SUSSEXFRANCE 1914-15 MESOPOTAMIA 1916-
PTE A. JOHNSON 302300 M.T.A.S.C. BAGHDAD 1917.18
J.McBLAIN 12703 RAF1916-17-18 MESOPOTAMIA
KAZEMIAN 1917-18 No. 579. MTPC.
maj-gen s. guise.moores D M S 2nd army
Mysteries and enigmas
O HOGG RN 1916 WINNIE
- Why is Hogg, an Able Bodied seaman who died at sea, buried on the Somme?
HMS CONTEST T COLLINGS RN
- If the destroyer HMS Contest was torpedoed and sunk, how did the sailor's cap snuff box survive?
H HAMMOND 771 ALH
- Why did a 38 year old married man from Adelaide enlist as a 30 year old single man in Blackall Queensland? And who was Gladys, whose prayer book was given to him the day before he enlisted?
Following the trail
Most searches started in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. The CWGC lists those who died. The searches are free. From there, it's different for different countries.
Australia anD NZ
The service records in the National Archives of Australia and New Zealand are excellent.
The service files for WW1 are online free - to be read, saved, or printed - sometimes up to 60 or 70 pages of documents and correspondence relating to the person. They cover all servicemen and women - not just those who died, starting with their enlistment.
The Australian War Memorial gives free online access to nominal rolls, honours lists with citations, and embarkation lists, together with access to related records and photographs in WW1 histories. It provides a link to service records in the National Archives of Australia.
It's much harder to find the backstory.
Births deaths and marriages are often indexes only, and original documents are expensive. And censuses - held regularly and analysed statistically - are anonymous.
Thus a soldier’s life before the war is a bit of a mystery.
The UK
Here the opposite applies - service records have either been destroyed by fire or are difficult to access, while paid-for ancestry sites have comprehensive records of life before the war.
The online medal cards in the National Archives can help but only the index is free.
Thus a soldier's service record is elusive, while his backstory may be rich and colourful.
I found that the most useful war service information is not in the official UK archives. It’s in the Rolls of Honour created by regiments and community groups - churches, schools, universities, villages - where archivists and historians and family history groups have put records online to honour their dead. It is here that personal war stories can be found. I found an excellent obituary in an online family history - it had also been submitted to the online BBC History Roll of Honour.