Sources:
The "BURNT DOCUMENTS":
Documents relating to some six million soldiers who served in World War I were retained after the war. During World War 2 the store in which they were kept was hit by enemy bombing and some two-thirds of the records were destroyed. The rest were badly damaged by fire and water, but were nevertheless retained. During the 1990s with the help of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund the painstaking job was undertaken of trying to retrieve as much of the information as possible from these documents. The result is the series of so-called Burnt Documents, which are available for consultation on microfilm at the National Archives at Kew, although, by subscription, can be viewed using online sites.
Wherever possible, reference has been made these surviving papers to document the Service History of the men named on the Buxton Memorials.
The Commonwealth War Graves [CWGC]:
The Commission, as part of its mandate, is responsible for commemorating all Commonwealth war dead individually and equally. To this end, the war dead are commemorated by name on either a headstone, at an identified site of a burial, or on a memorial. War dead are commemorated in a uniform and equal fashion, irrespective of military or civil rank, race or creed.
For each man on the site access to his burial or memorial place can be accessed by clicking the
CWGC logo in the top right corner of his/her page.
The Great War Forum [GWF]:
This site would never have been completed without the generosity in time, resources and
encouragement of my Forum 'pals', who have provided me with photos of men, Memorials
and graves, plus many details from War Diaries and Official Regimental Histories.
The cost alone in having to buy these resources would have made the whole Project
prohibitive. [Click the logo to have a look at the site.]
Graves and Memorials:
As stated above, over 80% of the graves of Buxton's fallen have been personally visited, but in some
obvious cases this has not been possible and I have relied on the work of the volunteers from these
two sites to provide me with the relevant photos of graves and memorials.
Published Material:
To anyone who would prefer to read an actual 'book' rather than a web page - I would recommend buying:
"Buxton, Burbage, Chelmorton, Harpur Hill, Peak Dale, King Sterndale and Wormhill REMEMBERED" -
Keith Taylor [2014] ISBN 978-1-906789-99-2 [Click the book to read more.]
In 2015 Keith published the second volume of this series: "Buxton, Burbage, Chelmorton, Earl Sterndale,
Fairfield, Harpur Hill, Peak Dale, King Sterndale, Taddington and Wormhill Remembered - with 760 black
and white photos 1920s-1950s." [Click the book to read more.]
Photographs:
Most of the photographs of Buxton's fallen have been taken from microfilm versions of "The Buxton
Advertiser" and the "High Peak News", contained in Buxton Library. As a result the quality of many is
of a poor standard, however, it was felt that better a poor photograph than none at all!
A few have been kindly provided by family members, whilst others come from contemporary sources,
such as 'The Sphere' or 'War Illustrated'.
