DOVERY Manor Museum in Porlock has been awarded a grant of £600 for a new project recording the service and sacrifice of local men and women during World War One.
More than 380 men and women from the parishes of Porlock, Luccombe and Selworthy served in the war, and 38 men died in the service of their country.
Dovery Manor Museum has launched a project not only to tell the stories of those men who died but also to register the names of every man and woman who served, in whatever capacity.
The project will culminate in November, marking the 100th anniversary of the end of the war.
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Dr Lita Strampp, curator of Dovery Manor Museum, said the museum was grateful to One Stop for its generous grant and for helping to ensure that all who served will be recorded and remembered.
The project is the initiative of a local writer, Jeff Cox: “We read the names of those who died on the village war memorials,” he said.
“But what do we really know of the lives of these men, the stories and the sacrifice behind their names carved in cold stone?
“And where is the record of all those who served during the war and came home, the men who fought on land and at sea, and the women who cared for the long-term wounded, and rallied local support?
“This is a chance to pay a full tribute to their lives and sacrifice, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War this November.”
The project aims to deliver three publications: a full tribute to each man who died, a comprehensive register of the men and women who served, and a third illustrated volume telling of the realities of people’s lives during the war at home and overseas, gleaned from letters home from the trenches, from extensive contemporary reports in the Free Press, and from local family histories.