News Archive - December 2005

Eaton Bray 'Roll of Honour'

Recently a visitor to St Mary's church commented, quite rightly, that the Rool of Honour displayed at the rear of the church was both inaccessible and difficult to read. As a result, the display was removed - firstly in order to clean and repair the frame, and secondly to rehang the document in a part of the church where it can be seen.

The actual document lists those men from Eaton Bray who were engaged on active service during World War I and would have been compiled either during the war or immediately following the end of hostilities.

For that reason, the Parochial Church Council took the view that the document should be preserved in its existing state and that although the lettering has faded with time it should not be 'enhanced' in any way, as doing so would spoil, rather than enhance, a historical document.

Instead, the information recorded on the Roll of Honour has been copied and can be found in a booklet, along with some explanatory notes concerning the abbreviations used on the original. We have also included a note of those names which, sadly, can also be found recorded in the War Memorial in the Church grounds.

Intersetingly, when the document was removed from the frame for cleaning, a sheet of paper was found glued to the reverse, which lists the names of the men (and women) of the village on active service during World War II. This information too has been transcribed and can be found in the booklet.

Finally, in order to complete the picture, a document from the Royal British Legion website has been copied and included as this gives details of those men whose names are recorded on the Memorial.

The folder containing this information can be found in St Mary's Church, and copies of the contents can be supplied in return for a modest donation to Church funds.

-- Chris Banks, Churchwarden

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