20 Streets in Portsmouth and the Great War: The St Wilfrid's Memorials

This project operated under the joint Auspices of Fratton Big Local and the Portsea Parish. St Wilfrid’s Church is a daughter church of St Mary’s Portsea, serving a mission parish of just twenty Streets in Portsmouth. Most of these Streets have remained largely as they were during the First World War, late Victorian terraced houses with narrow frontages. Portsmouth had atypical employment patterns with many men working in the dockyard, many women employed in corset manufacture and many homes occupied by men serving in the Royal Navy. The Street Memorial in the Church lists with some service detail, 993 men connected with those streets, 136 of whom gave their lives, and these are additionally commemorated in a second Roll of Honour memorial. Both are unusual in Britain because of the preponderance of Naval rather than Army service. The project researched the war-time stories of the men, survivors as well as casualties. Because the geographical area is so compact, comprising just 1278 addresses in 1914, we sought our volunteer researchers mainly in the original streets, to offer residents the opportunity to relate the history to their own homes and neighbourhood. The volunteers did online research to find the military records of the Great War and the census records of the men, but also made use of local electoral registers and original parish records held in the Portsmouth History Centre. Considerable use was also made of the near complete run of parish magazines from August 1914 up to the edition which described the inauguration of the memorials in 1926. The magazines include letters from various war fronts sent by several curates of Portsea Parish who served as chaplains during the war, including some from Rev Philip (Tubby) Clayton, the founder of TOC H in Poperinghe (Belgium). We received additional help from the Portsmouth Library and Archives Service, which facilitated the copying of many of the parish records and of the first 1918 Electoral Register for the area. Other training and support for the volunteers was delivered mainly by the project leader. We were grateful for advice and support from Dr Brad Beaven of the Portsmouth University History Department on behalf of the 'Port Towns and Urban Cultures' project, supported by the 'Gateways to the First World War' Engagement Centre at the University of Kent. Two history undergraduates enjoyed a placement with the project, and we also supported a group of young people through their National Citizen Service course, and they produced a short film and a splendid set of art work to illustrate what they had learned. Late in the project, additional volunteers were recruited to produce a digitised version of the 1918 Electoral Register for the Portsmouth ward that included the 20 Streets. The project concluded with an exhibition and presentation to the community in St Wilfrid’s Church, with the outcomes recorded on a data DVD which was subsequently distributed via the Portsmouth History Centre.