TF8804 : Ashill War Memorial with battlefield crosses
taken 6 years ago, near to Ashill, Norfolk, England
In Honour of those who served and in Memory of those who fell.
NORFOLK - Link
SUFFOLK - Link
A battlefield cross or grave markers were erected in the battlefield or an area designated as a cemetery for the temporary burial of soldiers killed in the field.
Officially, wooden grave markers, they all served the same purpose, to identify the deceased, but despite this they take many different forms.
At the end of the war thousands of graves were scattered over a wide area and the Imperial War Graves Commission negotiated with various governments to establish cemeteries with architectural memorials where all the fallen could be buried in a recognised place with uniform and permanent markers.
When the bodies were disinterred and reinterred in the cemeteries and permanent headstones erected, the crosses became redundant and were offered to the families free of charge. Relatives did however have to pay the cost of carriage, unless they were collected. Some were retained by the household but most were given to the local church for public recognition and safekeeping.
Today they serve as a reminder of the wholesale slaughter and loss to the parish and more particularly the families.