The men on the Meifod war memorial
Not just names…
In 2014, when History Group members were planning the WW1 exhibition that was held that August in Meifod Church, one of the crucial things that was planned was to find out more about the twenty-six Meifod men who were killed in WW1 – twenty-five listed on the Meifod war memorial itself, one extra on a memorial inside the church.
For the exhibition Dave Ward put together a folder giving details of each man – including where they lived in Meifod, how old they were, which regiment they were in, and where and when they died.
More research
Between 2014 and 2018 members of the group, in particular Dave and Frances Ward, and Jeff Warnett, did work finding out more about the men who had died, and their families.
This resulted in 2017 in Dave and Frances Ward marking the day each of the twenty-six men died, by tolling the church bell, and inviting people to come to the church to hear each man’s story as the year unfolded.
By 2018 we had also compiled a list of some 130 men from Meifod parish who fought in the war. We know that about 20% of these men were killed (not an unusual percentage for rural Wales), but we don’t know how many were injured, but survived.
Marking the deaths
We publicised the project with posters each month, giving details of the men whose deaths were to be marked, and inviting anyone to come along.
A network of people in the village and articles in the County Times helped spread the word further afield – and as well as people in the village coming, we were able to welcome descendants and families of many of our men at our marking of their ancestor’s death. These occasions were very special, and sometimes we were able to tell families things that they didn’t know – but more often they brought us photographs and told us details about the soldier’s life and family that we were able to add to our stories.
At the start of each event we tolled the church bell. As was traditional, we began by tolling nine strokes in groups of three, to say that the death was that of a man (six strokes in two groups indicated a woman’s death, and three single strokes, a child). This was followed by a single stroke for each year of the man’s life – which emphasised just how appallingly young many of our dead soldiers were.
Frances then read the man’s story.
All the stories follow, listed in alphabetical order.
Although each story is unique, each family different, and each man’s background and situation different – from the lad who enlisted underage to the seasoned career soldier –taken together they are a slice of social history. Set in a rural area at the beginning of the 20th century, the stories reflect class differences, social mobility, educational differences, wealth differences, the precariousness of life, and running through them people’s efforts to keep going and make a living.
Remembrance Sunday 2018
During the service we honoured all the men who died in WW1 by naming them in turn, and showing a photograph of them on a screen. Then a lighted candle in their memory was put on the altar either by someone from their family, or someone representing them in some way – for example, living on the farm which was once theirs, or someone representing a group in the village.
The altar was draped with a sheet listing the names of all the men from Meifod parish that we had found out about who fought in the war, and the names of all the women we knew who had done war work – including working in the land army, nursing, and fund-raising.
Sources used in our research
Census returns; Commonwealth War Graves Commission website; war service records on Ancestry uk; The Long, Long Trail website; regimental histories; parish records; newspaper accounts; Meifod school logbook and admission registers; parish council records; family accounts.
