Parishioners of Saint Walburge’s Catholic Church, Maudlands, Preston, killed in the World Wars
Compiled by John Garlington
First World War
St Walburge’s War Memorial is a truly remarkable piece of work. It is an altar and reredos set into the south wall, whose whole predella opens to reveal eight brass panels on which are inscribed the names of the majority of the War dead; the rest are on two additional brass plates not included in the main structure. The upper section, when open, forms a triptych and on the inside of its doors are the figures of St Walburge and St Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, in armour. These were painted by Mons. Aerts of Bruges.
The centrepiece is an almost life-size Calvary, with Our Lady and St John carved in oak on either side. In the centre is the figure of the crucified Christ, five feet high on an eight feet high cross. It is over five hundred years old and is a valuable art treasure in itself, having been bought from a Belgian art expert who found it too large for his collection. Originally it had been part of an abbey in Northern France, at Cysoigne, which had become ruined. At the foot of the Cross is the Preston coat-of-arms, showing the Lamb, the symbol of the resurrected Christ. This signifies that Christ is looking over the town. The whole structure was carved out of solid wood and was built by Joseph Reubens, also of Bruges. He repeated this feat in 1926 for the Lourdes shrine, which is also set into the south wall.
Also, money was raised for a chalice, nine inches high, which has a Latin inscription round it saying, “Let the priest offer a prayer for those who died for their country.” The piece was made by Mons. Baeyart of Bruges, but the clergy of the day were more impressed by the eighteenth century monstrance in solid silver, thirty six inches high. A Belgian family, financially ruined by the War, were forced to sell this and the rest of their art treasures
In researching the names on the War Memorial I have obviously used the names on it as the primary source [WM], though this did cause a few problems. I have also consulted a number of other sources including:
The Preston Roll of Honour [PRH]
The Preston Catholic War Memorial (now at Cardinal Newman College) and the College magazine of Winter 1918 [PCC]
The first list of the dead in the parish magazine, “The Walburgian” of June 1923 [Walb] before later additions were made.
Preston Cemetery records with the assistance of Mrs D Cunningham [PC]
The Electoral Roll of 1913-14.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records [CWGC]
The Preston War Memorial Fund List 1924 [PWMF]
The Preston Roll of Honour record, filed in the Harris Reference Library, is made up of detailed returns, completed by the next of kin, in 1925. These were the main source for the names for the Roll of Honour memorial tablets containing the names of Preston’s war dead in the entrance hall of the Harris Museum [H], completed in 1927. A hundred and thirteen of the hundred and fifty six names on St Walburge’s Memorial also appear on the Roll of Honour [73%]. If this is repeated on a town basis, then at least a quarter of the names of Preston men killed in, or died as a result of, the First World War are missing from that already overwhelming tableau. Many addresses, places of death and other details or comments come from these Roll of Honour returns.
In February 1924, collections started to raise money for the construction of the War Memorial, or Cenotaph, which stands on the northern end of the flag market. Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, it depicts the figure of Sorrowing Victory to represent the town’s grief. Collectors were appointed for each of the town’s wards and each contributor had his or her name registered in a record book. If I did not have an address from other records attached to a soldier, this book was no use to me. Another complication was that some widows may have remarried or moved house, as may soldiers’ parents and relations. Therefore, interesting as it was, this source was only partly helpful in giving extra detail.
My main source of information, after the War Memorial itself, was the Commonwealth War Grave Commission for details of burials, memorials and their locations. Extra information or variations are acknowledged by the appropriate abbreviation, e.g. [PRH]. The list is in alphabetical order, not in regiments, to emphasise some of the family relationships and to allow the names to be more easily located.
I also consulted The Lancashire Daily Post [as it was known at the time] [LDP] and The Preston Guardian [PG], which was a weekly newspaper. The latter was the more helpful as it increasingly consigned part of one of its pages to news of local men on active service, often accompanied by a photograph. The former became less useful in this area as the War years rolled on.
I have included all details gleaned from the above sources and have only shown sources where there seemed to be a conflict of detail.
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