‘Beautiful and fitting’ tribute to Cheltenham’s fallen WWI heroes as website tells their stories

Cheltenham soldiers who died on the battlefields of France and Belgium during the Great War have been commemorated on a new website.

Some 1,297 men and women from the spa town were killed in the war.

They were generally buried in shallow graves close to where they fell and these were often marked by their comrades fashioning crude wooden crosses made from whatever materials came to hand.

After the end of hostilities, the Imperial War Graves Commission exhumed the bodies and reburied them with new headstones marking each grave in some 2,400 cemeteries close to the battlefields of France and Belgium.

The original wooden crosses were then sent home to the soldiers’ next of kin. But many families were not sure what to do with the crosses.

But in Cheltenham, the council created a corner of the Bouncers Lane cemetery to house them and, eventually, ‘Soldiers Corner’ became home to 230 crosses.

The spa town’s unique World War One Battlefield Crosses Museum, home to the surviving wooden grave-marker crosses of Cheltenham soldiers, opened last year.

And now has its own website which presents the story of how the 23 remaining wooden crosses.

These were rescued through the intervention of Cheltenham Civic Society member, Freddie Gick.

Working with the Civic Society, he obtained a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the crosses to be professionally conserved.

As part of the project, students from Pittville School helped to research the stories of the soldiers the crosses commemorated, and those stories have all now been added to the website which is sponsored by funeral service Mason & Stokes.

Following the conservation work, there was a three -year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Then in 2023-4, fundraising by Civic Society member, Colin Smith, brought in donations from a wide variety of local individuals and organisations.

That enabled the Civic Society, with help from many volunteers, to create the museum in a former gravediggers’ hut in Cheltenham’s Bouncers Lane cemetery that had been provided by Cheltenham Borough Council.

Mr Smith went on to raise donations from Mason & Stokes to fund the new website and from the Spirax Group to fund the ongoing maintenance of the museum.

Jessica Bryars of Mason & Stokes, said: “We are honoured to be able to support this incredibly important project.

“The website will also enhance the visitor experience at the museum as QR codes will soon be added next to the soldiers’ crosses – taking people directly to each soldier’s story on the website.”

Cabinet Paul Baker (LD, Charlton Park), who is responsible for green open spaces, said creating a dedicated website is a brilliant way to share their powerful stories more widely.

“It’s a lasting tribute to Cheltenham’s fallen soldiers and a credit to everyone who’s helped bring this project to life,” he said.

Civic Society chairman Andrew Booton, said the website was a “beautiful and fitting tribute” to commemorate the town’s fallen soldiers.

“The stories of the soldiers that are now online will enable interested people from all over the world – who otherwise may be unable to visit Cheltenham – to learn more about the ravages of World War One and some of the 1,297 local men and women who died on its battlefields.”

Readers can find out more on the Cheltenham Battlefield Crosses website.