The most important source of information continues to be the families of those who served and died in The Great War. It is the photographs and family stories that bring the history to life. It seems to us as we make contact with families that most of them include at least one member who is the archivist, the keeper of the photographs and artefacts. We are indebted to these people for lending us their treasures to share on this website. We have tried very hard to aknowledge individuals on the appropriate serviceman's page and hope that we haven't forgotten anyone.
We continue to seek information and photographs about the soldiers and their immediate families. Please contact us on the message board if you have anything appropriate that you would like to share on the website.
Source 2
Flintshire's Roll of Honour - The Great War
This record of every Flintshire serviceman that served in the Great War was a unique and extraordinary accomplishment. For all of us that wish to learn more about our own family history or that of our particular community, it provides a rich seam of information about individuals from Flintshire during the 1914 -19 War.
In 1919, the Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire (Mr Henry Gladstone) initiated the scheme by inviting the various communities through the local councils within the county of Flint to produce a historical record of ex service men that had fought in the war. Individuals in each parish were nominated to compile the records and a simple card index format was used by each of the compilers. Each card recorded the details of one serviceman. The card included the person's name and address, the date of when he joined the armed services, his regiment, rank and service number. It says where he served and it records if a man was wounded or taken sick. Any remarkable achievements were noted. Families and survivors were consulted and invited to sign and contribute details for the cards. There was a very simple way of identifying the cards of servicemen who had died -their cards had the top right hand corner snipped off.
The cards were not the end of the matter, however. The information on them was transcribed into a book by Mr Albert Edwards of Mold and the finished volume was deposited at The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth, (Ref NLW Minor Deposit 721B ). I suppose on the grand scale of museum acquisitions this probably was a 'minor deposit' but to refer to it seems to be such a demeaning way of cataloguing the book. It took a massive imaginative and splendid exercise in cooperation and sheer human effort to produce this important archive. No other county in Wales went to this trouble.
It was planned in 1919, that 'A commemorative address, recording individual service and indicative of the deep abiding gratitude of the citizens of Flintshire would be given to each man and to the relatives of the fallen by H.M Lieutenant for the County of Flint' . There is an example of one of these on Walter Brookes's page on Sychdyn's Memorial.
The cards, arranged alphabetically and parish by parish are available to the public at the County Archive Office in Hawarden. (D/DM/181) (Reader's Card necessary but easily acquired from the Archive Office).
The cards were a crucial, fascinating and very poignant starting point in this study of the War Memorials in the Parish of Northop.
Source 3 A Record of the Services Rendered By Our Northop Men in The Great War 1914 -1919 By T.H Vaughan and J.R Richardson
This leather bound, handwritten book contains the names of every ex serviceman from the Parish of Northop (including the villages of Northop, Northop Hall and Sychdyn) that served in the Great War. It was compiled with great care and affection by the Schoolmaster of Northop School, J.R Richardson and was written to form an important part of the Parish Records. The forward to the book consists of three statements. The first is by John E Bankes of Soughton Hall.
This book containing a record of the names and services of the men from Northop Parish who served their King and country in The Great War 1914 – 1919 deservedly takes a place in the Parish Records. It has been compiled by one who throughout this war has taken great interest in the men themselves and in their doings, many of the men having been his pupils in Northop School. He deserves great credit for the care and accuracy with which the record has been compiled.
The record will bear hopeful testimony to those who come after us, of the way in which the parishoners of Northop responded in those trying years, to their country's call upon her manhood to rise to her support in the hour of peril. It tells alas of how many were faithful even unto death.
John E Bankes Feb 20th 1920
Vicar's Churchwarden
The next statement is from the Schoolmaster, J R Richardson who compiled the book. A record of the gallant services rendered by every man from the Parish of Northop who took his part in The Great War 1914-1919. This record is by the permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens placed with the Parish registers as a grateful memorial to Northop men.
J.R. Richardson Schoolmaster, Northop 1920
Finally, the Vicar's statement, This puts one in remembrance of loyalty and self sacrifice that will ever be an inspiration to those who come after and will stand out in their history of the Parish, representing what is noblest and best. It is with just pride and deep gratitude I think of what our men endured and accomplished.
T.H. Vaughan Vicar Feb 1920
The book contains similar – but not exactly identical – information to the Flintshire cards. The names are arranged alphabetically across the whole parish. One particularly poignant entry is that for George Arthur Richardson of Northop. George was a survivor of the war and had a meteoric rise from being an Air Mechanic to a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. He then became a flying instructor. Who was he? Well his name was Richardson and his address was 'The School House', Northop. I think that the Schoolmaster must have written that particular entry with great, great pride, relief and gratitude. The entries for the men who did not survive are marked with a cross at the beginning of the entry and RIP at the end.
The book is now located in the Flintshire Archive Office at Hawarden (P/45/1/380) and as one of those who 'came after' it was a great privilege to be able to handle it and read it. It provided much food for thought as well as information for this study.
Source 4 Medal Cards One of the sources used to discover information about the soldiers listed on the War Memorial was the collection of Medal Cards held by The National Archives at Kew, Richmond, London. Medal cards can be downloaded for an extortionate fee of £3.50 each (2007). http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk A serviceman's individual card is not always easy to decipher and the information on them is variable. However, a card can tell you the following-
The soldier's name, his regiment, his service number. It often tells you which theatre of war, was entered first by that soldier and on which date. It lists the medals awarded and in most of the servicemen from the Parish received up to three medals. A soldier qualified for a campaign medal if he served overseas. Around the rim of a medal was stamped the soldier's number, rank and regiment. The following medals were awarded to our soldiers but not every soldier was awarded every medal.
The British War Medal 1914 -1920
This was awarded if the serviceman had to leave his native shore - wherever that was in the British Empire. It did not matter whether or not he entered a theatre of war. The medal was silver and circular. On one side was King George V and on the other was St George. The ribbon had a central band of yellow with stripes of white, black and blue on either side.
The Victory Medal 1914 -1919 This was awarded to all servicemen who entered a theatre of war. The medal was bronze and circular with a figure of Victory on one side and 'The Great War for Civilization' on the other. The ribbon was two rainbows with red in the centre.
The 1914 - 1915 Star There were two types of 'Star Medals'. The first (and the rarer) was the 1914 Star which was awarded to personnel that served in a theatre of war before December 31st 1915. The 1914 – 15 Star was awarded to those who did not qualify for the first Star but who fought in a theatre of war before 1916. The medal was a laquered bronze star shape which had resting on it an imperial crown and crossed swords. The ribbon was red, white and blue.
When all three medals were awarded they were popularly referred to as 'Pip, Squeak and Wilfred'
If two medals -Victory and the British medals were awarded, these were nicknamed 'Mutt and Jeff'. (These nicknames came from popular cartoon characters of the day).
For more details about the medals go to the National Archives site or 'The Long, Long Trail' http://www.1914-1918.net
One last piece of information that was sometimes recorded on the medal card was whether or not the soldier died. There were a number of cards that failed to even mention that this had happened. On those that did, it was cursory and quick. Sychdyn soldiers were described as 'K in A' (Killed in Action) or 'D of W' (Died of Wounds). Some just 'Died'.
It would be easy to criticise those that did this but they were dealing with thousands and thousands of names and details and so I suppose we should be grateful that any records were kept at all.
Source 5 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission This non profit making organisation was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and was established by Royal Charter in 1917. The CWGC pays tribute to the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars.
Since its inception, the Commission has constructed 2,500 war cemeteries and plots, erecting headstones over graves and in instances where the remains are missing, inscribing the names of the dead on permanent memorials. Over one million casualties are commemorated at military and civil sites in some 150 countries.
The principles of the CWGC are
Each of the dead should be commemorated by name on the headstone or memorial.
Headstones and memorials should be permanent
Headstones should be uniform
There should be no distinction made on account of military or civil rank, race or creed.
The website for the CWGC is http://www.cwgc.org/
This website has an excellent facility for searching for casualties and it was invaluable for tracing the soldiers on the Memorials. The information that it provided for each casualty was his name, regiment and regimental number. The date of his death and the location of his grave or memorial site and a reference for locating the grave within the cemetery or the name on the memorial. In many cases it states where he was from and the names of close members of his family. The site allows the user to download (free) a certificate for each serviceman which includes all the information about him, with a photograph of the relevant cemetery or memorial. These have been included in this study with the consent of the CWGC. There are further details about the locations and histories of each cemetery on the CWGC website.
Source 6
Census Returns, particularly The 1901 census All of the servicemen named on the War Memorials were alive when the census of 1901 was carried out. Most were young children then. I traced the majority of them by usinghttp://www.ancestry.co.uk Where it was possible to find them, the following information was provided:
His name and birth year, place of birth, his address and the names and ages of the rest of his family. The occupations of any working adults were detailed. This enabled me to add some family detail to each story.
One slight problem with this source is that Sychdyn is always written with the English spelling of Soughton. This has been misinterpreted as Loughton in many cases as the dubious handwriting of some enumerators has been transcribed in the National Archives.
The next census, carried out in 1911 will not be published until 2011. This will provide the most up to date information about each soldier just before the war began.
Source 7
The County Herald This weekly newspaper for Flintshire, Denbighshire and adjoining counties which produced editions for many years including throughout the Great War is a source of much information about the progress of the war and the local servicemen's activities in it. It also tells us what was going on in the various communities at home including Sychdyn, Northop and Northop Hall. The newspapers are available for fascinating reading (and easy photocopying at 30p per A4 sheet) on micro film at the Reference Library in Mold.
NB You could buy the whole newspaper for 1 penny during the war years. 'Trinity Mirror Cheshire' gave consent for us to use photocopied old newspaper cuttings.
Source 8 The Churchyard at Northop and 'Northop Monumental Inscriptions' Clwyd Family History Society.
An important source was the graveyard itself and we have included photographs of some of the graves in this study. However, the publication 'The Old Churchyard Vol 1'. Published by Clwyd Family History Society, filled in some of the gaps. This volume which is indexed alphabetically, makes locating a grave much easier and details of the inscriptions are included. I used a copy that was in the Reference Library in Mold. Source 9
'Remembering the Dead in Northop: First World War Memorials in a Welsh Parish' by J Bartlett and KM Ellis (NEWI).
This academic paper was published in 1999 in the 'Journal of Contemporary History'. It traces in some detail the history of the War Memorials in the Parish. It is very readable and interesting and was a crucial reference in compiling this study. The librarians at Mold Reference Library were able to locate the Journal and send for a copy of the article from the British Library.
Source 10
School Log Books Sychdyn, Northop and Northop Hall These are at the County Archive Office at Hawarden.
Source 11
The Pride of Northop. A collection of stories of Northop. Collected and arranged by Roy Edge and set down by Rosemary Jones published in 2000 as part of Northop's Millenium Celebrations.
A wonderful book full of facts and anecdotes with many wonderful photographs. An important source for this website.
Source 12
Northop Parish Magazines. These monthly magazines were produced throughout the Great War and beyond and provide a good insight to what was happening in the Parish. These are bound into yearly volumes and kept at the County Archive Office in Hawarden.