Research warns local war memorial stories are being lost

ITV's Lunchtime News reported that new research by a family history website suggests the stories behind names on local war memorials are being lost ahead of Remembrance Sunday. It said 84% of people recognise the value of war memorials, but only one in three can locate their local memorial. It also reported that about 70% of people are not confident they could name a single person on a war memorial.

Historian and broadcaster David Olusoga told ITV that the memorials were built after 1918, when families wanted places in Britain to grieve and remember rather than only cemeteries in France and Belgium. He said the names carved on memorials across the country made the subject local history as well as military history.

Olusoga urged people to photograph the names on their local memorial and use a new free tool at findmypast.co.uk/remember. According to ITV, the tool links military records with family records and local and national newspapers to build biographies of the dead. He said that meant they were no longer just names on a memorial.

He said the men commemorated went to the same schools, walked the same streets and worked for local companies. The new tool, he said, helped keep the promise made in 1918 to remember them.