Stone Historical and Civic Society need your help to tell the stories of men from Stone who lost their lives in the First World War.
Their aim it to write a short account of all those men from Stone who were killed during the war or shortly afterwards as a result of injuries sustained and who are mentioned on the various memorials in the town. We’ll be publishing this on the site too.
Anyone with any information on the men is asked to contact Steve Booth at stevebooth46@hotmail.com
The Society has some information already from military records and other sources, but hopes to get more information from their descendents such as photographs etc.
The Society are also planning to hold a talk on the subject as part of Stone Festival and an exhibition on the War in conjunction with historian Steven Edwards.
They have also been in contact with the Town Council and as a result the council are planning to arrange a ceremony at the War Memorial and a church service, probably on the Sunday nearest to 6th August (the date when the first men from Stone to be called up left the town in 1914).
Here is a summary of the figures of the casualties of the Great War from Stone:
144 – total deaths recorded on all memorials and in Stone Cemetery
113 deaths on the Western Front and 31 deaths elsewhere
Six men from Stone killed in 1914
26 died in 1915 (of these 14 died at Loos on 13th October 1915)
36 died in 1916 (the worst year for deaths: of these, 20 lost their lives over five months in the terrible Somme battles)
34 died in 1917
32 died in 1918 (31 up to 11th November, 1918)
There were also deaths in 1919; 2 deaths in 1920 and 2 deaths in 1921 (as a direct result of injuries sustained in the war).
136 were army causalities (65 from Staffordshire Regiment Battalions)
5 Royal Navy
3 Royal Air Force
Average age of death – based on 131 ages recorded so far: 26 years’ old
Philip Leason wrote an article for A Little Bit of Stone last year on Stone and the First World War. You can read it HERE
1 comment