This community website has been created by volunteer, amateur historians. It began as a small hobby project by Eifion and Viv Williams who researched the stories behind the names on their village memorial. This project grew and grew until it became what it is now, a website for the stories behind the names on Flintshire’s WW1 memorials. Flintshire is defined as it was during The Great War.
Practical and financial help and support came from Flintshire Local Voluntary Council and then the Wales Heritage Lottery programme. This help facilitated the development of a website which could be accessed by volunteer researchers who could be trained to add their own research to the site. The project is managed by a Steering Group which oversees all the developments and the finances.
Once a story has been researched and added to the website, the magic of the internet starts to work. Stories are very often enhanced and expanded by further information and scanned photographs which are sent to the project by family members of servicemen. They communicate with us in the first instance via the ‘Contact page’ on the website. We are eternally grateful to these families for sharing their stories with us.
There are many people who have played a part in this project. We want to especially thank Peter Fuller who advised and helped with making the original website into a more flexible one that allowed many people to work on it. More recently Darren Williams has used his professional design skills to redesign the whole site to give it a smart new look. We also thank Keith Ridding who has become a brilliant tour guide on our visits to France and Flanders. We can’t thank enough, all the Researchers who have discovered and told all the stories Here’s the whole team in alphabetical order…….
Eifion and Viv Williams
Celia Drew. Celia is an experienced Family Historian. She attended a talk about the Flintshire War Memorials project and signed up as a researcher. She became one of the Hope/Caergwrle Team and has done work on Mostyn’s memorial. She has learnt much about her soldiers who now seem like part of her family. She is excited that a soldier’s family may see his story and respond with more information.
Winston Ellis. Winston is a member of the Steering Committee of FWM. His visits to the battlefields of France and Flanders with the project were new and surprisingly emotional experiences for him. Winston is amazed at the dedication of the volunteers and the personal attachment they have each made to ‘their’ soldiers.
Barbara Forbes Barbara came to FWM via her work with The Buckley Society. Barbara was involved in the preparation of an exhibition in the town in 2014. Her task was to research additional evidence to add to what Researcher Peter Kelsall had already uncovered. She describes the project as a massive jigsaw puzzle but interesting and rewarding especially when eureka moments happen. She has found project visits to France and Flanders very moving with real ‘lump in the throat’ moments.
Claire Harrington. Steering Committee member, Claire |Harrington is Flintshire’s Principal Archivist based at the County Record Office. where a number of important WW1 sources are held. Claire has provided training sessions for volunteers and meetings of the Steering Group take place at the Record Office. She has found visiting France and Flanders to be a moving experience and ‘knowing through the work of the volunteers that each name there represented a young man with loved ones, talents, ambitions and what should have been a whole life ahead of him’.
Dave Healey Dave was instrumental in organising an evening talk about FWM in Hope. Arising out of this, he arranged a workshop for potential volunteer researchers. It was out of this workshop that the Hope/Caergwrle Team was established. This team (including Dave), shared out the soldiers on the memorials and took responsibility for researching and telling their stories. Since then, Dave has moved onto pastures new but his important contribution to this project will always be appreciated.
Keith Humphreys. Keith became involved after researching what happened to his Great Uncle, John Richard Lancelot who was killed during the Battle for Gaza. From there he really enjoyed researching the stories of WW1 soldiers from Cilcain, Nannerch and Ysceifiog. He has found it fascinating. An opportunity to ensure ‘we don’t forget the young men of Flintshire who lost their lives a century ago’.
Peter Kelsall. Peter first became interested when he researched two Great Uncles who served in WW1. When he found how much information was available, he researched all the men on the Hawkesbury memorial and found many Buckley men who were not named. He published his findings in the Buckley Magazine in 2005 and then some years later, he expanded his work with Flintshire War Memorials. Peter grew up in Buckley and now conducts his research and work on the website from Colorado where he now lives.
Peter Knox. Colonel P J Knox of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers was recruited by Eifion and Viv Williams to be FWM’s Honorary Patron. He had attended a talk by them at Bodelwyddan Castle and says he was immediately interested. Peter has turned out to be a very ‘hands on’ patron. He joined the project’s 2017 visit to France and Flanders where, at Zandvoorde he told the story of what happened to the ill fated 1st Btn of the RWF in October 1914. We are very honoured and delighted that he agreed to be FWM’s Honorary Patron.
Claire Lewis. A prolific tweeter, Claire contacted the project via twitter. She asked when the Hanmer Memorial was going to be researched. A quick reply and she was recruited to to the job. Claire had a particular interest as she had relatives named on the Memorial. She has found much inspiration for the project on our visits to the battlefields of France and Flanders. Claire has boundless energy and enthusiasm for the causes close to her heart, which are about Remembrance and support for military veterans.
Jane Marriott. Jane attended a talk about FWM and decided she wanted to be involved. She became part of the Caergwrle/Hope Team and more recently has been working on the Prestatyn memorial. She says she enjoys finding the life stories of the soldiers and the research has led to her gaining a better knowledge of the war itself and thus to a better uderstanding of this horrific part of our history. Jane believes it has been an interesting and worthwhile project. she made a stunning WW1 wall hanging to commemorate the centenary, which now hangs in her local church.
Peter Metcalfe Peter has been researching the Flint Memorial for many years. In 2014, he published the first volume of his research in a book entitled ‘Remembered Again, Recalling Flint’s fallen heroes of the First World War’. We were delighted when Peter agreed to join FWM and to share what he has learnt on the website. Not only is Peter a Researcher on the project but he is a member of the Steering Committee. He says that through the project he has met some nice people and he found his first visit to the battlefields of France and Flanders a powerful and moving experience. We look forward to the publication of Volume 2 of his work.
Geoff Mitchell. Geoff attended a presentation about FWM at Flint and District Lions Club and at the end he volunteered to be a researcher, a decision he was glad he made. He has gone on to be a prolific and meticulous researcher who has worked on memorials in Holywell, Greenfield, Bagillt, Caerwys and currently he is working his way through the huge Rhyl memorial. Geoff says he has met nice people through the project which has opened his eyes to the way families lived at that time and the sacrifices made when a loved one went to war. He enjoys the excitement when some new information comes his way about one of ‘his’ soldiers.
Renee Owen. Renee first came to the project with information about members of her family who were named on the Mold memorial. Some time later, she volunteered to be a researcher. Her early lack of confidence in working on the website soon disappeared as she started to work her way through names on the Prestatyn memorial. Renee says she has not only found the work interesting and rewarding but she feels privileged in trying to ensure their stories will never be forgotten. She also loves that we can put a story, a family and often a face to the names.
Anne Parry Anne heard about the project and volunteered to do some research on the memorials in Dyserth and surrounding area which is where she spent her formative years. It’s an area she has long been interested in as an amateur historian. The FWM project has given Anne additional insight into life in the village and beyond, during WW1 and the impact the war had on residents. Anne has found it a moving experience, particularly speaking to some of the descendants of men who were killed.
Gill Roberts. Gill attended a talk and loved the idea of what the FWM project was doing. She volunteered to become part of the Caergwrle/Hope team. She hoped she could make an input which would be valuable and in return she would hone her research skills. She says she achieved far more than that. Not only did she meet a new group of people with whom she has shared unique moments but she realised that she knew ‘her’ men and became passionate and protective over them. Gill says she would encourage anyone to become involved in this type of research wherever they live.
Howard Satchell. Howard ‘s wife Pat was already a researcher for FWM and he became more and more interested as he noted how absorbed she was. Eventually, he decided he would research the WW1 memorial to Welsh Nurses in St Asaph Cathedral. He is currently involved in establishing and adding coordinates for maps on the website and reentering some text and images so that they work on the revamped site. Howard is also a Guide at the WW1 training trenches at Bodelwyddan.
Patricia Satchell. Pat came to the project via conversations in a small friendship/walking group. She was at that time a volunteer at Bodelwyddan Castle and so took on the research into the Bodelwyddan village memorial. This was soon extended to researching the some 85 Canadian war graves in the churchyard of St Margaret’s Church, Bodelwyddan. Pat is also now part of the enquiry team at Wrexham archives for The Royal Welsh Fusiliers. Pat says her involvement with FWM has led to her gaining new skills, confidence and opportunities. She is proud to be a volunteer for Flintshire War Memorials.
Jennifer Walters. Jen is a a valuable and supportive member of the Steering committee where she is secretary. She takes a very active interest in the project and says she has learnt so much about the First World War through her involvement. It has given her a real and emotional understanding of what our soldiers went through. Here she is about to visit Wellington Caves in Arras on one of visits to France/Flanders.
Mavis Williams. The phenomenon that is Mavis had already started to research the Connah’s Quay/Shotton memorial when she joined the FWM project. She says she didn’t realise what a world it would open for her. She has met many lovely people and loved researching the social history of our area. The greatest reward for Mavis is the reaction of descendants when she has helped them discover the story of their loved one. It is the volume of her work that makes Mavis so remarkable. She has done all the research on Hawarden, Connah’s Quay/Shotton and all the Deeside memorials as well as helping out other researchers with their memorials.
Eifion and Viv Williams. Founders and managers of the project. They began in a very small way by researching their own village memorial, (Sychdyn) and then the parish of Northop. It was knowing what lengths the people of Flintshire went to, after WW1, to record the details of all the men who served that led to them working on the whole County. They are very proud of the website and constantly amazed at all the work that the researchers have done and continue to do. Eifion taught himself how to make the original website and he is still our webmeister and technical guru. Viv does the editing and administration. They both continue to do research and frequently do presentations to local groups where they tell some of the stories that have been discovered.
If you have any information about someone named on a Flintshire WW1 memorial, please let us know via the Contact Page
We try not to make mistakes but if you spot an error, let us know via the Contact page
We never knowingly breach copyright on this website. If you believe we have done so, please let us know via the Contact page. If it proves to be the case that we have, we will remove the item.