This project is the work of volunteers from Dorking Museum and Heritage Centre. It will be an invaluable tool for researchers but also a memorial to and memory of those who fell in the Great War, reminding us of their lives and sacrifice. It could not have been produced without the help and enthusiastic cooperation of many others who have devoted time and energy to the subject. We are very grateful to them
As the war claimed the lives of their sons and heirs, wealthy families from the mansions that surrounded Dorking installed memorials and windows in local churches. Amongst the most notable locally are the Cubitt chapel at St Barnabas on Ranmore, the stained glass windows in Newdigate church to the sons of Mrs Janson of Newdigate Place, and the stained glass windows at Christ Church, Coldharbour, in memory of Raymond Leopold Grieg Heath, son of Arthur Raymond Heath of Kitlands.
Keeping a record of those who were serving and who had died, particularly while enlistment was still voluntary, had been a feature of local participation throughout the war. Churches and schools had regularly printed lists of those serving in end of year reports and parish magazines. From the summing of these records at the end of 1918 came moves to install permanent memorials to all who had died, not just those whose family could afford a memorial. As villages, churches, sports clubs, community halls and schools sought too commemorate the loss of members committees were formed to raise money and to commission memorials.
Often it was proposed to honour not just those who died, but all those who had served, including civilians – and even women – who had worked for the war effort. Some villages considered using the funds to provide facilities for the living – community halls, electric lighting, or playing fields – in memory of the dead. But in almost all cases it was a memorial stone or plaque to the men who died that was eventually installed.
The commissioning of war memorials was not a scientific, well researched business; record keeping was ad hoc and war memorials contain errors and omissions. Differing criteria applied for inclusion from village to village. In some the fallen had to have been born in, or lived in, the village; in others the link could be tenuous: having a mother who had moved to the village or coming from a family which owned land in the area. Some of the fallen are commemorated in multiple memorials: in their local church, school and village. Others – and particularly those who died after 1920, though of wounds sustained during the war – are not commemorated at all. Some who appear on memorials were not dead but marrying and fathering children years after inclusion on memorials.
Dorking Museum has started researching the memorials in our town and is working with other village groups to research and record as many names as we can on the many Memorials across the area.
This project is still on going and the links below will be updated and other villages will be added to the lists as the information is collected and recorded.
| Abinger | – | St. James’ Church Cross |
| – | Village Green Memorial | |
| Betchworth | – | St. Michael’s Church Cross |
| Dorking Museum sincerely thanks Karen Wilson from Betchworth Villlage Archive for allowing us to publish her research. |
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| Box Hill | St. Andrew’s Church Memorial | |
| Brockham | – | Christ Church Cross |
| Capel | – | St. John the Baptist Memorial |
| Dorking Museum is very grateful to Bernice Forsyth and Mary Day from Capel Local History Group for letting us publish their research. |
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| Coldharbour | – | War Memorial |
| Dorking | – | Dorking High School (Ashcombe) |
| – | South Street Memorial | |
| – | St. Martin’s Church Memorial | |
| – | United Reform Church Memorial | |
| Forest Green | – | Village Green |
| Holmbury St. Mary | – | St. Mary’s Church Memorial |
| Leigh | – | St. Bartholomew’s Church Memorial |
| Dorking Museum thanks Molly Worsfold and Tim Dumas from St. Bartholomew’s Church in Leigh for allowing Dorking Museum to reproduce their research |
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| Men with Local Connections | ||
| Mickleham | – | St. Michael’s Church Cross |
| Dorking Museum appreciates Leatherhead Local History Group generosity in letting us share their research. |
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| Newdigate | – | St. Peter’s Church War Memorial |
| Dorking Museum is extremely grateful to John Callcutt from Newdigate Local History Society for sharing his expertise and research. |
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| North Holmwood | – | St John the Evangelist Church Memorial |
| Ockley | – | St. Margaret’s Church Memorial |
| Dorking Museum thanks the Friends of St Margaret for allowing us to reproduce their research. |
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| Okewood Hill | – | St. John the Baptist Church Memorial |
| Ranmore | – | St Barnabas Church Memorial (opens to Ranmore’s own website) |
| Thank you to Margaret Maynard from Ranmore Archives for all her help in this project. | ||
| South Holmwood | – | Church of Mary Magdalene Memorial |
| – | South Holmwood Memorial | |
| Westcott | – | Holy Trinity Church Memorial |
| Thank you to Peter Bennett and John Clachan for allowing us to reproduce Westcott History Group’s research. |
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| Wotton | – | St John the Evangelist Church Memorial |
| Those Who Survived | ||
Click here to read Peter Bennett’s article on Westcott Men on the Somme
