Monuments Recording Group

The Monuments Recording Team are making good progress towards recording all the monuments in the Cemetery. This exercise is to provide us with our own records of the Cemetery and, although we have access to Mrs Pattison's publication, enable us to claim our work as an original source.

We have now completed recording all the graves along the outside walls on the North, East and South sides of the Cemetery. On almost every session we have come up with new material that was either missed on Mrs Pattison’s survey or needed correcting or adding to. For example, Elizabeth and Hazel have found a monument to Jack Evans, a submariner who died at sea in World War 2, and was missed out on our earlier survey of War Memorials. They also found part of a memorial to Alexander Buller Turner, a VC decorated soldier from WW1. This memorial was originally located in Thatcham where his family came from but , inexplicably, ended up in Newtown Road Cemetery, half buried in the grass.

The Imperial War museum has advised us that memorials in the Cemetery that remember servicemen who died abroad during military conflicts are considered as official War Memorials that can be listed in their records. In both cases we have to apply to the relevant bodies which we are now in the process of doing. We will keep you informed of progress.