Local commemoration on the anniversary of a battle

[geraint]

There's been a few postings recently regarding local commemoration of a specific battle. I thought I'd open a specific thread for this. Tom R has referred to the Dundee Memorial being lit on 25th Sept to commemorate the impact that Loos had on the city and losses incurred by the local (mainly Black Watch) battalions.

Here, 9 July and Mametz Wood had a terrible influence on the town and should be commemorated. The same could be said for all villages, towns and cities - there is one battle which stands out for the losses of that town.

Are there specific ceremonies or acts of rememberence celebrated where you live in memory of those specific area losses? How do you do it?

[NeilEvans]

Can't recall any 'large' events in Shropshire. Having said that Shropshire is very rural and having only 7 decent sized towns.

I wouldn't say Shropshire didn't suffer on a large scale, but, Shropshire is just a county of small rural communties. Thinking of large industrial areas, Potteries, Birmingham for instance they were bound to suffer on a larger scale.

Wellington lost 6 men on 14/07/1916 of 180 men who fell (3%). I think the worst was Edgmond, a small village, who lost 3 men on 25/09/1915 near Ypres out of 30 (10%)

Shropshire as a whole, looking at my database, 4000+ men, suffered its worst day for casualties on 14/07/1916 when the 7th Btn KSLI took heavy casualties during the Somme. I've only found 19 casualties for July 1st.

What are the figures like for Ruthin?

Neil

[geraint]

Neil

Population 5,000, of which 101 on memorial. 26 killed/died of wounds in ten days following 9th/10 July 1916 - Mametz Wood. That's the single influential battle here. No commemoration, and incredibly, the local school's history department no nothing about it. They 'do' 1st July in a generic manner, but were ignorant of local involvement. Sad; so very sad.