PARWICH.ORG

This afternoon (2pm Central European Time, i.e. 1pm BST) sees the unveiling of a new Sherwood Foresters Memorial at the Tyne Cot Cemetery in Belgium.  To see photographs of the stone being carved go to the WFR Museum website.

This Project has been led by Major John Cotterill MBE Mercian Regiment, Mr Cliff Housley Regimental Historian and Mr Eddie Edwards BEM Assistant Curator/Archivist The WFR Museum (Sherwood Foresters Collection):

In the Great War 11,409 men of the Sherwood Foresters died on active service, the vast majority of them on the Western Front. Despite the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire having made this great sacrifice the Regiment is unique in having no lasting Memorial anywhere in France or Belgium.

140,000 men served in the ranks of the Regiment’s 33 Battalions and of the 74 Infantry Regiments then in existence only three won more Victoria Crosses than the Sherwood Foresters in the war. Nine of the Foresters 10 Great War VCs were won on or over the Western Front.

In the aftermath of the war it was decided to commemorate the Fallen by the construction of a lanterne-des-mortes memorial in the shape of a lighthouse, shining out over the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border from Crich Hill. At that time it was a wise decision as travel to Europe was expensive and difficult. Times have changed and many thousands of people now visit the battlefields and cemeteries of the Western Front every year. These numbers grow annually and include many school groups and descendants from our counties.

The new Memorial carved out of Derbyshire stone has been funded by councils from across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, including Parwich Parish Council.  The unveiling of the Memorial will be shown on Monday’s East Midlands Today (26th Oct).

The majority of the local War Dead served in the Sherwood Foresters and lost their lives on the Western Front.