ABOUT

Great Torrington paid a heavy price during the Great War. Despite being a small town, 83 men are named on the town's war memorial. It is difficult to imagine the effect this would have had on the local community, as well as the families who lost their fathers, brothers and sons. It struck me whilst walking past the memorial one day how little we know about these men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We often hear the words "lest we forget" spoken of these men, but the sad reality is that we are in danger of having their memories lost to time. This project aims to trace as much detail of their lives as possible. This included trawling through census data, military records, old newspaper clippings and, where possible, tracing their families for further information. There has been varying degrees of success depending on the information available. 

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What is for sure is that there are some fascinating stories to tell. We have men who fought with the Canadians and the Australians, as well as a host of different regiments throughout the country, such as the Welsh Fusiliers and Irish Rifles. The First World War wasn't confined to Europe and there are men who fought in far away theatres such as Egypt, Palestine and India. And, we have men who fought in the most notorious of battles, such as the Somme, Passchendaele, Gallipoli, Jutland and Jerusalem. 

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At any time in any age, it is worth sparing a few moments to remember the lives of these men that were cut short by war. These were the men from Great Torrington.

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Lest we forget.

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Michael Newcombe

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Please note that this is a work in progress. I am eventually aiming to fill these pages with details of all 80 men. If you would like to discuss this project with me, or you have some information you would like to submit, please email me. Your thoughts and input would be greatly appreciated and most welcome.  

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