The War Memorials of Epsom and Ewell |
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Epsom's famous clock tower has a plaque:
'IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY'.
Image courtesy of Clive Gilbert © 2014
The people commemorated on the Borough's memorials and on relatives' graves have been researched. The information found for each person can be found by using the links below:
Great War Casualties, by surname A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
It has been estimated that throughout the United Kingdom there are about 100,000 War Memorials of one kind or another.
Whilst the vast majority of War Memorials were created in the aftermath of the Great War, there is a long tradition in the UK of War Memorials, and it is said that Battle Abbey was built to commemorate the Battle of Hastings!
War Memorials can be found at:
| Banks | Churches | Clubs |
| Market Places | Parks | Police Stations |
| Railway Stations | Road Junctions | Schools and Colleges |
| Sports Grounds | Work Places |
They appear in a great variety of formats, including:
| Aircraft engines | Allotments | Books of Remembrance |
| Crosses | Fountains | Framed scrolls |
| Horse drinking troughs | Hospitals or hospital wards | Lych-gates |
| Park gates | Part of a church or chapel | Plaques |
| Rolls of Honour | School entrances | Screen in a church |
| Sculptures | Sports pavilions | Stained glass windows |
| Village Halls |
The great variety of forms that War Memorials take perhaps stems from the fact that there has never been any Government money or directives as to what form memorials should take. Each community or interest group decided on what form their memorial should take, often influenced by how much money was available.
War Memorials form an important part of our heritage, representing the huge sacrifices made during some of the darkest episodes in our history. They should not be thought of as glorifying war, instead they ought to remind us of the terrible pain and suffering that previous generations had to endure, and might just help future generations to begin to understand that wars only bring death and suffering. Throughout the Borough of Epsom and Ewell there are many memorials commemorating Britain's conflicts. The conflicts responsible for the greatest loss of life are the Great War of 1914-1919 and the Second World War of 1939-1945.
Click on the links below to read about each memorial.
Please contact the webmaster if you are aware of any other War Memorials within the Borough.
Some sources of information:
- 1914-1918.net (The Long, Long Trail)
- Aircrew Remembered
- Birth Marriage And Death (BMD) Index http://freebmd.org.uk
- Canadian War Records. (Canadian Virtual War Memorial.).
- Census returns.
- Combined Operations
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
- Find A Grave
- Imperial War Museum
- Lambeth Palace Library
- Electoral rolls.
- Kelly's Directories.
- The Epsom and Ewell Advertiser.
- Baptism Records.
- London Gazette.
- National Archives Medal Rolls.
- National Archives
- Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-19. CD
- Parish Council minutes.
- Parish Magazines.
- School Records
- Surrey recruitment registers.
- The London Scottish in the Great War by Lt-Col J.H. Lindsay
- The Times Digital Archive
- U boat.net
- War Memorials Online
- WW2 Cemeteries
Some other war related pages that you might like to see
World War One
- Anecdotes (WW1)
- Anglia, Sinking of the Hospital Ship
- Canadian Hospital Association
- Canadian Military Convalescent Hospital (Woodcote Park) see Woodcote Park Camp
- Coroner And Soldier
- Epsom & Ewell War Hospital
- Green, Station Sergeant Thomas (Epsom Riot)
- Hogg, Adam Murdie
- HMS Epsom
- Khaki College
- National Kitchens
- Postcards (WW1)
- Somme, The
- Taunts no Excuse
- University & Public Schools Brigade (U.P.S.) see Woodcote Park Camp
- UPS Men - Notes
- UPS Men's Force, Life in the
- WestEwell 1913 map showing where some of the fallen lived
- Woodcote Park Camp
- Air Crash at 30 Acre Barn
- Aircraft Crashes during World War 2
- Army Cadet Force
- Ashley Road Deep Level Shelter
- Bomb Map (WW2)
- Civilians (WW2)
- Epsom & Ewell before, during and after WW2
- Glasers, The - Extraordinary Lives
- Home Front
- Home Guard
- Jack King (MI5 Operative)
- Naval Fatalities (WW2)
- Prefabs
- Survivors (WW2)
- Tattenham Corner Restaurant
- There is a war on you know!, see Dorset's Ironmomgers
- Tragedy on the Home Front
- Victory in Europe - 8th May 1945
- War Diary of Hilda Andrews OBE
- Wartime Memories
- Battle of Waterloo
- Murray, Frederick Dymoke (1871-1901) (Boer War)
- National Service see Record your memories of the 1950s
- Northey, F V (1836-1879) (Zulu War)
- Officers and Gentlemen
- Orr, Colonel Alexander Stewart, DSO (c.1861-1914) (Boer War)
