% Losses by town/city

[ss002d6252]

I'm busy compiling some stats for soldiers from my local area and currently I'm looking at when they died.

Do any of the other researchers on here have any figures for losses against population that they would be wiling to share ?

So far I have a death rate of around 12% of those who served (number of those who served had been inferred using the number who served across the UK as a % of population) which gives a local death rate as a % of population in the area of 1.2% - if I include details of people born in the area who no longer lived in the area when they died then it ups the figure to around 2.2% of the population.

[stephen p nunn]

I'm busy compiling some stats for soldiers from my local area and currently I'm looking at when they died.

Do any of the other researchers on here have any figures for losses against population that they would be wiling to share ?

So far I have a death rate of around 12% of those who served (number of those who served had been inferred using the number who served across the UK as a % of population) which gives a local death rate as a % of population in the area of 1.2% - if I include details of people born in the area who no longer lived in the area when they died then it ups the figure to around 2.2% of the population.

Difficult one in relation to Maldon/Heybridge. In 1921 General Horne said "out of a population of 5,000, 900 men had joined - 1 in every 5". He then went on to say "750 men returned to Maldon".

In actual fact there are 146 names on the town memorial but the total loss was actually around 248 and the population 6253.

Regards.

SPN

Maldon

[tharkin56]

Estimated from coventry 35000 men served, 2600 names were included in a roll of honour after the war my research has about 3500 names so 10%

[CROONAERT]

Its estimated that approx. 16% of the (approx) 25000 servicemen of Burnley died in the Great War

[phil@basildon]

I have a copy of '1914-18 A Village Remembers' about the small village of Faulkbourne in Essex. The population at the time was 148. A total of 23 men served, 3 officers and 20 OR's. Of those 23 four men did not return, two of those killed were officers. The figures show an increase (19%) over the figures for the country as a whole, that for the officers an enormous 66.6%. Having said that the proportion of officers (15%) is more than one would expect from a larger community. In such a small community the effects would probably been felt more than in a city or large town.

[truthergw]

According to Chris on LLT, approx 8.7 million men served and 0.96 million died. That is roughly one ninth or 11%

[andy1400]

Raunds, Northamptonshire. Roughly 650 men served and we have 128 killed (107 on the War Memorial). Population on the 1st of November 1914 was 3,874.

Andy

[djcrtoye]

My home town population in 1911 was 24,833. Total casulaties was 785 men and 1 woman. So taking that into account the figure is 3.22% of the population. So at the end of the war the population would've increased there fore the % of casualties would have fallen to into the 2-3% range. I'm making major assumptions here as no figures for 1914.

Dominic.

[Huw Davies]

I'm currently researching the War Memorial at Aberbanc in Cardiganshire, West Wales. A small rural community. Of the 122 that left to fight in the Great War - 24 were to have their names inscribed on the memorial which if my maths is right is 29.28%. I have heard that this is about the highest percentage in the country for a given area. Can't verify that though.

Huw

[Jonty Wild]

I am part of a small team researching the men from the village of Pirton Hertfordshire that served for the Pride of Pirton (to be published in 2010). In 1914 the village had approximately 800 residents. We have identified 231 men with a connection to Pirton that served, although not all were resident at the time. 37 died, although only 30 are listed on our memorials. I suppose that you could surmise therefore that 16% died. However, as I am sure you realise you can never get a really accurate figure. As I said some were not resident at the time, but perhaps their parents were and at least 2 who appear on the memorial have only a tentattive connection, whereas there are some who were Pirton born, bred and schooled that are not listed (currently). Intersting topic nonetheless.

[truthergw]

If we are to apply statistics to small numbers, we must expect anomalies and in particular, cluster effects. A direct hit on a bunker can devastate a village and skew the statistics but will disappear when we go up to County or region. Effects which appear at the larger aggregates probably reflect real influences. Loos for example affected Scots casualty figures because both assault divisions were Scottish. The Black Watch had 5 battalions in the field with the resulting effect on the local recruiting area. What I am trying to say is that statistics are only meaningful at one level. If the annual figure for the nation was 10% it is not meaningful to apply that to a village or small town and try to draw comparisons.

[KevinBattle]

According to Chris on LLT, approx 8.7 million men served and 0.96 million died. That is roughly one ninth or 11%

If the annual (average?) figure for the nation was 10%

The figure of 10% is of the men serving, not the entire population, so the figure should be much less than 10% when compared to the total population at that time. You can't say that of a village of 1,000 10% died, the service deaths would probably be closer to 2 or 3% I would hazard.

For Jonty's example at Pirton, pop 800 approx, deaths 40 or about 5%. Statistics can be used many ways, let's just say that just under a million died (I thought it about 800,000 but no matter, the only aspect you can safely extract is whether "your" town had a higher or lower casualty rate than the average and look for factors, such as a number of sailors all on one vessel, or Pals Battalions etc affecting one community harder.

[Cliff. Hobson]

From my home village approximately 440 men served and there are 91 names on the Village War Memorial, nearly 21% and having looke at the Regiments (we are fornunate to have a comprehensive list of men who served) it would seem that 90% served as infantry men.

Regards Cliff.

[MartinThwaite]

It would be interesting to know the %figures for Accrington and Newfoundland.

Martin