Forget Me Not Commemorative Wreaths for Cheriton

11th Nov 2018

Strange Cargo researched Lives of the First World War and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission websites; and visited The Imperial War Museum, local exhibitions and museums, to develop a programme aimed at showing people what life in Cheriton was like during the First World War. The programme was part of a Heritage Lottery funded project called Forget Me Not which was developed in remembrance of the sacrifice of local servicemen and women and their families during the Great War.

Our research identified the names, regiments, date of death and age at death, of the fallen Cheriton servicemen that appeared on local WWI Memorials. We sought to identify those local servicemen who had lived in Cheriton, to see if we could find out if many of them had travelled from Shorncliffe Camp station, now called Folkestone West station. Our research unearthed information about the now closed down Cheriton Halt Station, which was identified as significant Cheriton station for soldiers coming through Shorncliffe Camp during wartime. Regiments transportation information was not available, however we carried out research by visiting the Imperial War Museum, Folkestone Town Hall Museum, including their exhibition about the life of local soldier Walter Tull; Folkestone Library Museum, Cheriton Library; and we talked in depth with local historians Vince Williams, Peter and Annie Bamford, to unearth a clearer picture of local life during the First World War.

Historian Annie Bamford's research revealed unexpected information about a number of fallen servicemen's former home addresses in Cheriton, which we were able to add to with our own research through the Imperial War Museum records. This information enabled us to reach out and educate a much larger group of people as to the heritage of their homes and the soldiers who had once lived there. With the soldiers home addresses, wrote to 100 current households and invite them to display a wreath over the weekend of the WWI Armistice. This aspect of the project would become a very poignant, town-wide memorial to the men who died in the war and educated a large group of people through public noticeboards, social media and word of mouth. For the soldiers whose addresses we could not find, their named wreaths were hung on the wall of Cheriton Road Cemetery for the Armistice Centenary weekend. In total 182 named wreaths were displayed in respectful remembrance across the town for the weekend. The addresses of the soldiers homes were displayed on social media and on notices to enable visitors to seek out the houses and pay their respects. Each participating household was provided with detailed information about all of the soldiers whose homes were involved in the wreath project.

Huge thanks to Arts Council, Folkestone Town Council, Roger De Haan Charitable Trust, Eurotunnel, Cllrs. Love, Monk, Wheeler, Ewart-Jones, Dearden, Dorrell, Prater, Fuller and Berry for their support.