About the Wivenhoe History Group's WW1 Project

Our WW1 Project

In keeping with so many other communities, we want to remember the terrible conflict which started in August 1914. This will not be a celebration of that time but a commemoration of the struggle, the pain and the suffering.

Anyone who is interested in researching, or helping another member research, some aspect of the War will be most welcome to come to one of our project meetings. Please get in touch with Gill Strudwick by emailing: wivenhoehistory2@gmail.com

We have members who are:

– looking through the WUDC minutes held in the ERO,

– reading all the copies of local newspapers of the time

– looking for material and stories about the involvement of women during that period

– researching the men who dies and whose names are recorded on the war memorial

– compiling a complete list of people who served their country during that major conflict in many different capacities

– maritime activities – the boats which were built in Wivenhoe during 1914 – 18 for the war effort

We would like to understand what Wivenhoe was like at the time of the so-called Great War. Wivenhoe was a tight community and much smaller then than it is today.

Part of the project is also to work with Wivenhoe’s local schools to help them understand more about WW1.

To coincide with the 2016 Remembrance Commemoration, we published Wivenhoe’s Roll of Honour listing the names of over 300 people who served their country in WW1. This was produced in book form as well as a list of names on this web site. The Roll of Honour was dedicated at the Remembrance Service and is now held in the British Legion Hall on the Quay, in a case.  For more information about the Roll of Honour, click here

If anyone has information on a Wivenhoe person who was involved in WW1 at home or abroad we’d love to hear from you. We are interested in both soldiers & civilians, and stories which have been passed down through the family. You can either click on the button on the home page which says Contribute and then upload any photogrphs you might have and type in some text to describe what you know about them, or you can in touch with us via this email address:   wivenhoehistory2@gmail.com

Note:  We were greatly assisted by the Heritage Lottery Fund who gave us a grant of £9,000 toward this project. Part of this money was for the work with the schools and £3,500 went towards buying the software to establish this history archive in which to record all of the research to do with WW1 plus a lot more besides.