Percentage Casualties in Individual Parishes

[rolt968]

Before I start this I should say that I do not want this to develop into a thread about which part of the country made the greater sacrifice.

In one of the parishes I am working on there are only 5 names on the war memorial all of whom had close local associations (4 residents + a regular whose family were residents). There was also one recently arrived resident (a postman and D reservist) who isn't on the memorial. Six didn't seem many until I found out that the total population in 1921 was 169.

These are obviously crude statistics. Is there any work published or un published about loss levels at parish or equivalent level?

R.

[rob carman]

R.

Here are my current data for Norfolk parishes. I used three sets of casualty figures (Haggard, war/church memorial, Roll of Honour website) and compared each to the 1911 census data and, where available, the number of men that served. There were about 600 parishes in Norfolk in 1914.

Rob.

[Guest]

R.

Here are my current data for Norfolk parishes. I used three sets of casualty figures (Haggard, war/church memorial, Roll of Honour website) and compared each to the 1911 census data and, where available, the number of men that served. There were about 600 parishes in Norfolk in 1914.

Rob.

Blimey....one parish had 72% fatalities as a % of 1911 population? Intrigued. MG

[rolt968]

R.

Here are my current data for Norfolk parishes. I used three sets of casualty figures (Haggard, war/church memorial, Roll of Honour website) and compared each to the 1911 census data and, where available, the number of men that served. There were about 600 parishes in Norfolk in 1914.

Rob.

Thank you Rob!

That is very interesting. I'm obviously only at the beginning! The maxima and minima are particularly interesting.

R.

[rob carman]

Sandringham - pop. 104 but t including the estate workers who were not residents has inflated the figures. Similar trends (to include as many names as possible) would have led to over reporting in other parishes. Sandringham is just the worst/best example.

[Guest]

Sandringham - pop. 104 but t including the estate workers who were not residents has inflated the figures. Similar trends (to include as many names as possible) would have led to over reporting in other parishes. Sandringham is just the worst/best example.

Thanks. Interesting nevertheless. Presumably the 1/5th Norfolks and the Sandringham Company at Gallipoli being the major factor. MG

[Guest]

Sandringham - pop. 104 but t including the estate workers who were not residents has inflated the figures. Similar trends (to include as many names as possible) would have led to over reporting in other parishes. Sandringham is just the worst/best example.

Thanks. Interesting nevertheless. Presumably the 1/5th Norfolks and the Sandringham Company at Gallipoli being the major factor. MG

[DaveBrigg]

This is fraught with difficulties: changing parish boundaries and the nature of the casualty's links to the parish being two of them. The 1911 town of Brigg had a population of 3,343 but this was in three parishes, two of which extended to include another nearby village. The memorial records 105 casualties but not all lived in the town or are counted as casualties by CWGC, and some of those born in Brigg had moved away before enlisting. SDGW lists other casualties born in the town who are not recorded on the memorial. On these figures it is close to your mean of 3% but I suspect that this would be a little higher than the actual percentage of residents killed who lived in Brigg immediately prior to enlistment.

[rolt968]

It is certainly a very crude figure. Working on adjacent parishes, I've found men on the memorials of two adjacent parishes; also on the memorials of the parish where they were born and where they lived.

R.

[rob carman]

We seem agreed. The precise number of deaths for any single parish is elusive and will probably include men who should not be counted.

However, if the trend to inflate was more or less even across the board, the numbers of the dead and the rates of death would still be higher than they should be but each would be inflated by the same relative amount. And, if so, some statistical comparison would be acceptable.

On the other hand, if inflation was patchy, the range of rates would be expected to be large. Instead, each mean rate and its matching median (i.e. from the same column) are close, while standard deviations, as a proportion of their respective means, are also small, indicating that if you look at a lot of parishes, the rates on average fall within narrow ranges, that outliers (e.g. Sandringham) are not common, and that inflation was applied evenly and not patchily. Statistical comparison is acceptable.

When I began this, the effects of having TF drill halls in rural and urban parishes on recruiting rates and on death rates was my goal, but I long ago found that too hard a nut for me to crack.

Rob.