From the folder produced in 1998 by Colonel Tim Beath, churchwarden of St James' Cardington:

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

1998 is the 80th Anniversary of the ending of the First World War on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918. In two years time we will be looking back on that war and the Second World War as conflicts in the last century, the distant past, history.

To mark the 80th Anniversary, representatives of the four Parishes of Hope Bowdler, Eaton under Heywood, Rushbury and Cardington have undertaken research into the family backgrounds, Service records, and final resting places or memorials overseas which apply to each of the men or women named on our Village War Memorials. In the case of Cardington the research includes the thirteen soldiers and one padre named on our First World War Memorial and the one soldier named on a tablet in the church commemorating his death overseas in the Second World War.

This folder contains the details gleaned from a variety of sources (listed below) about those who died overseas and are commemorated by name on the Cardington Memorials; in the hope that we and those who follow us will be helped to remember them, not just as names carved in stone, but as people just like us, but who died for us. An initiative on the part of the Church Stretton Rotary Club and Royal British Legion has resulted in photographs of all but one of the overseas headstones or memorial commemorations of our men being obtained and displayed in this folder. We are indebted to Mr Dick Doyle and to those who have given us details from the records listed below; mentioning in particular the dedication of amateur archivist Mrs Margaret Beal of Shrewsbury and the collated data provided by amateur historian Mrs Annette Burgoyne of Ludlow: some of their findings are included as references at the back of this folder.

Sources of Information:

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