The Ellesmere Port War Memorial situated near the Civic Hall

This website was constructed following one of our regular visits to the Battlefields of WW1 where we again took a coach party of 40 Year 10/11 pupils to Flanders Fields and the Somme in France. To focus on the local significance of how the war affected Ellesmere Port, we decided to try to find and visit as many of the graves of the soldiers recorded on the Ellesmere Port War Memorial that we could. This website records the results of those efforts and shows where future researches may lie, given that this is an ongoing project. There is a separate website recording our full Battlefields visit in the menu bar on the left. Furthermore, this project is also part of our ongoing general research into the local history of Ellesmere Port and Whitby and there is also a link to our local history website below.

Visit this page to see the current list of men that have been researched, plus a full listing of the men on the panels of the war memorial. We are also finding men of Ellesmere Port that have not been recorded on the memorial and these men will also be featured once research is complete.

Most Commonwealth War Graves sites have a direction sign whether at home or abroad (you may have passed the war graves sign for Blacon in our locality). As you can see on our link for Christchurch in the left menu, there are several Commonwealth War Graves from WW1 in the cemetery of the former parish church for Ellesmere Port. However, there is no direction sign which we feel is essential for this tucked away site. We raised this with the Ellesmere Port Pioneer who have now taken up the campaign. The local British Legion have given it their support, although the Commonwealth War Graves Commision do not own the land and cannot be involved. Click here for the latest developments.

In December 2007 a memorial plaque was erected on the external wall of Christchuch to remember the men buried in the churchyard who died as a result of service in the First World War. Click here for the full report and photographs.

This site has been featured several times in the local press. Articles include our pupil research into the local men of the war memorial, our battlefield visits and the campaign for a direction sign at Christchurch, Ellesmere Port. Click here for the Media page

Read about the cruel tragedy that befell the Bousfield family. A father who loses three sons to the war, two of whom were never found.

We are most grateful to Mrs Val Price who contacted the school recently after her brother spotted their ancestor on our website. Mrs Price has kindly sent us a family photograph (recently featured in the local press coverage of this site) plus a tree and other bographical information. This excellent evidence will be used in the classroom, and will then appear on these pages very shortly.

We welcome on board local researcher Alan Gregson, who has spent a number of years researching World War One history, including the War Memorial in Stoak village. Mr Gregson has supplied us with numerous photographs of some of the soldiers on the war memorial, taken from the local press articles of obituary notices during the war, plus the photograph of the Bousfield brothers. We are most grateful for his contribution and hope this collaboration will continue to be fruitful.

www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/

The causes, events and people of the conflict dubbed the 'war to end all wars'.

Charles Royden was in the Royal Field Artillery in the First World War and was killed in 1918. It has taken many years of research to compile enough material for this modest biography. To ensure that even this was not forgotten visit these pages for a more detailed account of Charles Royden at the Somme and his war record.