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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Average Parish losses, men served to men died


NeilEvans

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I've done a brief snap shot of 1,000 men located on various rolls of honour throughout the county.

The average death rate is 15% of the men/rolls sampled.

Has any body else produced figures relating to men served and men who died? is this a fair average?

I remember seeing an overall figure of 8.5% men enlisted to men died.

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Hello Neil

There is a recent thread "How many villagers went to war? " on this section (Other) of the Forum. Scroll back about four pages and you will find it. It has some information which should help you.

There were many variations but the overall average for the British Army was somewhere between 1 in 7 and 1 in 8 died. Not far off your average but in some places which were badly affected by 1 July, for instance, you would expect a higher ration and for those serving outside France, a lower one, except perhaps Mespot because of a higher rate of disease.

Ron

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  • 3 weeks later...

Neil

How did you get the figures 'men who served' for the villages? I have intense difficulty in obtaining such figures for this area.

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Neil

How did you get the figures 'men who served' for the villages? I have intense difficulty in obtaining such figures for this area.

Hi Geraint.

These were villages that included the served/returned men on the local memorial, or church scrolls listing the men who served/returned.

Neil

Note:

I have 26 villages that listed their 'returned men', however i've visted over 200 locations

Easier for smaller communities to produce.

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I would suggest doing an 'approximation'

8 men died, 15% death rate would mean around 120 men served.

However, looking at my figures it's not a brilliant idea.

Have you estimated any numbers? ie looked at census records and estimated the number of men eligible for service between 1914-18

Neil

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Yeah! I'm fine for the town. It's the figures for neighbouring villages that are difficult. Thinking about it, putting in the village name in Ancestry probably wouldn't bring in any real results 'cos they would have noted the nearest postal town instead.

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Yeah! I'm fine for the town. It's the figures for neighbouring villages that are difficult. Thinking about it, putting in the village name in Ancestry probably wouldn't bring in any real results 'cos they would have noted the nearest postal town instead.

Very True.

Wonder if any parish leaflets survived or Newspaper articles

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putting in the village name in Ancestry probably wouldn't bring in any real results 'cos they would have noted the nearest postal town instead.

No, you're wrong there, because I tried it and found several listed under the village name and a couple more where it was misspelt (which it often is) by using the wildcard. It all depends on what the man stated on enlistment, of course.

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Newspaper coverage is very good - and thereby lies the difficulty - 52 editions per year over 4 years + 208 newspapers searching for 12 villages! Very timeconsuming, and even then not guaranteed!

Thanks for the additional info Grace. It probably is worth trying.

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Newspaper coverage is very good - and thereby lies the difficulty - 52 editions per year over 4 years + 208 newspapers searching for 12 villages! Very timeconsuming, and even then not guaranteed!

The joy of research. I hope to get to Hawarden soon, for that inquest report!

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Our local rag published an "Active Service Roll" of men serving up until the start of conscription in 1916. As the numbers grew, they alternated the names from the town with the names of those from the villages in each weekly issue. Later still, they would tuck in the odd parish or two in spare corners of the paper. No help with those who enlisted once conscription began, but brilliant for the rest as most (not all) village correspondents supplied service details as well. Sometimes got it wrong though!

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Grace

(Not gone yet!)

I found the same in the rags here as well. One paper was especially good and went out of its way to name enlistees. That lasted for about 3 months, and it's hit or miss then due to the sheer volumes I suppose.

Now - really off to the Archives!

Geraint

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