The Warwick War Memorial Project

'Unlocking Warwick' is Warwick Town Council's volunteer group, who organise community activities and support the local council in bringing visitors to the historic town. It has eighteen active members with a smaller sub-group engaged in historical research. Via a small community grant awarded from the Council in 2018, the group's volunteers launched a special website to give military details and the human stories behind the 365 names on the World War One plaques featured on the Warwick War Memorial, to mark the centenary of the Armistice. Available for local residents, schools, colleges and future historians, this database site also contains various features about Warwick during the conflict. Coordinated research in various archives was supported by a public appeal with leaflets, articles in the local newspaper, and interviews on BBC local radio. This appeal yielded many family photos and stories. The weekly newspaper, The Warwick Courier, also supported the project. For three months they devoted full pages to 'Stories from the War Memorial' conveying stories of sacrifice made by local families. The newspaper received appreciative feedback from readers, with more stories coming to light as a result. The information uncovered was used to commemorate the Armistice centenary. On October 7th, on the final day of the annual Warwick Words History Festival, volunteers dressed in clothes contemporary to the period organised a 'Armistice Tea' in the Court House Ballroom. Eighty guests heard an account of how Warwick was affected by war, readings of some of the personal stories of those who had died, and samples of war poetry. They joined in with songs from the period by mezzo-soprano Imogen Parker and St. Mary's Director of Music, Oliver Hancock, then enjoyed a celebratory tea of authentic wartime food. On October 13th, fifty people joined the Warwick World War One Walk. Starting at the Court House – the Town Hall – they heard the Mayor recreate the reading of the official proclamation of war from the steps of the building in August 1914, when he urged local men to sign up. By this time, the army had taken over the Court House to organise the 350,000 men from the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, the Warwickshire Yeomanry and the county's Royal Horse Artillery who mustered in the town to be despatched to Europe or the Middle East. At the War Memorial three of those who died were represented by volunteers. A young actor from Warwick School told the story of Eric Pyne, the son of the school's headmaster and who died in 1917, whilst the Manager of the Information Centre represented the only woman commemorated on the memorial, a nurse called Janet Greatorex. In the Market Place guests heard about the origins of the poppy appeal and a reading of John McCrae's poem 'In Flanders Field'. Inside the Collegiate Church of St. Mary - home of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment chapel - a huge display of poppies had been made by schools, community groups and individuals, some sent from across the world. The aim had been to have a hand-made poppy for each of the 11,160 men of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who did not return. In the end 62,000 poppies were created and displayed. On the centenary of Armistice Day itself, a piper played at dawn at the memorial. A special morning service in St. Mary's was followed by hymns, readings and prayers at the memorial with a schoolboy sounding 'The Last Post'. This was followed by a march-past and parade through the town by local military units, civic leaders and community associations. That evening, before the lighting of the Memorial Beacon in the grounds of Warwick Castle, the names of all those from Warwick who had died during the war were ceremoniously read out to a large crowd by two members of 'Unlocking Warwick'. At the end of November, the photographs of Warwick's World War One Fallen were used to decorate the 'Unlocking Warwick' tree in the annual Christmas Tree Festival at St. Mary's Church. The volunteers have continued to upload new information to the website as this comes to light. At least eight of those from Warwick who did not return from the war are not named on the memorial (for various reasons), so there are ongoing plans to incorporate an extra brass plaque listing their names, to ensure they will not be forgotten .