Over the course of recent years I have put together some research into the men who are listed on the Littleport War Memorial as having died in the Great War.
The result of the work is now ready for viewing but it is not being published in book form. The work will be made available for viewing, free of charge, in the Heritage Centre. Any person who wishes to look at the work is welcome to do so, but they are not allowed to remove any of the material, nor copy any of it in any way.
Visitors to the Heritage Centre wishing to view the research material will be asked to sign as accepting this condition.
The information has been gathered from Barber’s Almanack, the 1901 and 1911 Censuses, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Soldiers Died in the Great War, and War Diaries written by the units in the war, and local newspapers. Every person who served in the Armed Forces had a record of their service; sadly most of these were destroyed in a bombing raid on London during World War 2. The material that remains has been included in the research. As well as the service record every man who served overseas had a Medal Roll Index Card and these survived World War 2 and are included in the research.
In addition photographs have been taken of most of the graves or memorials for the men named.
The Littleport war memorial lists 128 names of men who died in the war. At the time the population of Littleport was approximately 4500 of whom 2250 were males of all ages. The number who served in the armed forces was 596 or 26.4% of the population. The losses amount to approximately 5.6% of males, 2.8% of the total population or 21.4% of those who served. These figures are fairly typical of the losses nationwide.
Garth McGowen
Vice Chairman
Littleport Branch
Royal British Legion