Scratch a war memorial and you'll find a colonial. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, but you should never discount the possibility of your man serving in the CEF, the ANZACS or even the South African forces. There are two such men on the Ibstock war memorial: Pte. 414621(CEF) C.T.Partner and Pte.3850 J.W.Naylor(AIF) MM.

The CGWC refers to casualties like these as having Canadian or Australian nationality for instance, but I wonder if this is really true. Just how many of these British born individuals had actually become naturalised citizens of their newly adopted countries? The statistics are probably out there somewhere.

Whatever drove them to leave these shores, no doubt in the hope of a better life and whether those hopes were fulfilled or not, they answered the call to defend the home of their birth. Both Partner and Naylor appeared to have been volunteers.

At first sight the CWGC entry for Cyril T Partner has no connection at all to Ibstock. But an individual of that name can be found in the 1901 census aged 7 and again in the 1911 cneus, now 17, living with his mother Annie and other family members. His CEF attestation papers, which can be found here http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-100.01-e.php, show he was born near Leicester in 1894 and his NOK is his mother Annie. It's not clear if Annie returned to Ibstock, or what family members were left there, but someone cared enough to ensure his name appeared on the memorial.

I don't know when John William Naylor left the UK, but after traveling half way round the world his final destination prior to enlisting in the AIF was Wallsend NSW, an area noted for its coalmines, and “miner” was still his occupation. He gave his father as his NOK with an address in Ibstock when he attested on 21/8/1915. He became a “digger” in every sense of the word.

You can search for John Naylor's embarkation record here: http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/nominal_rolls/first_world_war_embarkation/ and it's interesting to see that 4 out 40 names on that page give NOK addresses that are in the UK. His roll of honour entry on the same site will lead you the page explaining how to search for service records at http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/explore/defence/service-records/army-wwi.aspx and in John's case they have been digitised. Thirty seven pages survive with some duplication. Many are hand written, while others are typed. All are neat, orderly and legible. This one small card summarises his army life and death.

John's Military Medal did not reach his parents until the summer of 1918. But without any idea why it had been awarded, his mother wrote a letter asking for an explanation. There is no record that she ever received a satisfactory answer.