Wooden wall board for Stottesdon Roll of Honour in St Marys church

Image: © Jeremy Bolwell Taken: 12 May 2022

There are many, many names listed here, 84 by my count, from the Stottesdon catchment area or parish, a high and very sad tally. They are listed by years, with the bulk of losses being early in the war. Each one a tragic and heartfelt loss to a family, village and parish, with several Palmers and other surnames, poignantly. Young men, often boys, taken by jingoistic propaganda, national pride, national need, patriotism, call it what you will and seized by a military machine and catapulted into a horrendous war on an industrial scale at a stage in their young lives when most had probably never left the county, let alone the country...farmboys, stockmen, shepherds, delivery boys, clerks, butchers, drunks, toughs and poets maybe. They never returned, though three are buried here I believe. I read terms like 'roll of honour' or 'our glorious dead' and wonder where the honour and glory actually lie? We will remember them. And do all we can to prevent rolls like this ever being needed again.

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