What started as a simple gesture to discover the first names of servicemen from WWI and WWII who did not return to their village transformed into a 16-year labour of love for one woman from Dorset.
When the names of all those commemorated on her village’s two memorial plaques were read out during a Remembrance Day service, Mandy Page-Palmer, from Frampton in Dorset, couldn’t help but feel sad that their first names weren’t known as well. Little known to Mandy, this resolve to find out the servicemen’s full names was to set on her on a 16-year mission.
During the course of those 16 years, Mandy has traced the names and details of all the servicemen listed on Frampton’s war memorials. When she first started her research, there wasn’t as much information available online as there is now, but Mandy persevered and last year finally found the remaining missing details. Her research has not only honoured the memory of the fallen, but it has also resulted in bringing the servicemen to life every year through an exhibition at Frampton’s St Mary’s Church, and, most touchingly, has created connections with living relatives.
Mandy takes up the story:
“Since 2018, I have put on a display in the church, with information for each serviceman detailing his name, rank and number, date of birth, date and place of death, as well as burial details, including photographs of memorials and overseas cemeteries. Over the years, I have also been able to add the names of their next of kin. Many descendants have travelled to our church to attend our Remembrance Day service and have been able to give me photographs and more information. One year, the great grandnieces of one soldier took part in the service.”
The story of Charles John Samways is just one that has come to light as a result of Mandy’s research. A shepherd before going to war, Lance Corporal Charles Samways MM was in the 1st Bn Dorsetshire Regiment and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in battle on land in February 1917. Born in 1896, he was killed in action on 14 April 1917 aged just 21. He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme in France, unveiled in 1932 to remember almost 73,000 soldiers who died on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 who have no known grave.
Mandy continues:
“During the year, a book with details of the servicemen is left in the church, and we do find that descendants leave information about their relative. From 1 – 31 November, I put up the exhibition, with each serviceman’s details attached to a candlestick, one per pew – showing just how many were lost from such a small village as ours. Now, when names are read out during our Remembrance Day service, we hear the full name, rank and age of the fallen serviceman – not just an anonymous surname.”
The display runs at St Mary’s Church in Frampton until 31 November 2025.
Image: Charles John Samways MM