BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN CONFLICTS - AND THE STORIES OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THEM. A LOOK AT BRITAIN'S MILITARY PAST THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF WAR MEMORIALS

As the media coverage of World War One continues it is easy to think that war was all about trenches and the Somme, but Britons have been fighting for their country for hundreds of years, all over the world, and their deaths did not end with World War Two.

Mick McTiernan has done some excellent research which proves that Percy Finch died of enteric fever in Crete, not in conflict. This raises the question as to whether I should scrub the story, or instead argue for its retention on grounds that he was there on active service. In which case do I start including those campaigning elsewhere who died of fever?

My thanks also to Mike Kelly for providing me with new information about Francis Hervey, who was killed at Madina Creek

For ease of access I've added a  page titled 'All Conflicts' which lists all stories in chronological order, with links to the appropriate story. Thanks to Peter for the suggestion.


This site is an attempt to look at Britain's plethora of military campaigns using memorials to those who died in them as a starting point. I am avoiding the more obvious conflicts, or at least their most obvious aspects, as they are so well covered already, and trying to identify instead the more obscure campaigns. Having said that, there are some World War 1 stories here, as it appears to be easy to ignore the naval side of that conflict, and fighting was not restricted to Western Europe and Gallipoli.

Any positive criticism is more than welcome, as would be the pointing out of any factual inaccuracies I may have included. The majority of the research involved has been online, and inevitably Wikipedia features a lot, as does Ancestry for the family research. I have listed all my sources at the end of each narrative, although, as this is not a university dissertation, I have not annotated the specific references. If anyone knows of an inscription that they think would be appropriate for me to write about, or comes across one, please let me know. I suspect the site will never be finished, for there will always be another name to find, another conflict to discover, another family story to follow.

Jon Dewhirst
March, 2015

IF YOU KNOW OF AN INSCRIPTION THAT YOU BELIEVE SHOULD BE ON THIS SITE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. A TRANSCRIPTION, EVEN BETTER A PHOTO, WOULD BE EVEN MORE APPRECIATED
Please click here to contact me - (feedback would also be welcomed)



 © Jonathan Dewhirst 2013