Beer's 1914 generation honoured on this site

Posted by - 10 years ago

Richard Scott, left, John Varley, and the Hon Caroline Fowle at the launch of www.devonremembers.co.uk in Beer. Listen to Richard talk about the project by clicking the 'play' button top left

Tributes to more than 80 men from an East Devon village who fought in the Great War can now be found on this site.

Their names and stories have been added to www.devonremembers.co.uk, which was set up to honour the men and women from Clinton Devon Estates communities who served in the conflict between 1914 and 1918.

The names of the men from Beer have been added to the site after being researched by village resident Richard Scott.

He said: “As a former pupil of Colyton Grammar I was asked to research the names on the school’s Great War memorial. I found that project so intriguing that I just carried on the work in Beer looking at the names on the village war memorial. After that I also began to research those who survived the war.

“I tracked down and spoke to the descendants of some of the men who died, as well as those who came back, and they were incredibly helpful, adding personal stories and pictures to the information available publicly.

“These stories have already featured in an exhibition in Beer. I’m really pleased to say that they will now be available permanently online for people across the world to see.”

The website was launched in August 2014, telling the stories of the men and women honoured on war memorials in the estate communities of Budleigh Salterton, Colaton Raleigh, East Budleigh, Newton Poppleford and Otterton in East Devon, and Merton and Huish in the north of the county. Volunteers from Budleigh Salterton’s Fairlynch Museum and elsewhere had carried out the research.

Website www.devonremembers.co.uk is funded by Lord Clinton’s Charitable Trust and Clinton Devon Estates. Estates Director John Varley said: “The website helps us all to remember that thousands of young people from Devon were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and for those they left at home.

“While many of their names are recorded on memorials across the county, there is a real danger their stories will be lost as time passes, so www.devonremembers.co.uk serves as a digital memorial to those who fought on our behalf a century ago.

“The website is an also an invaluable research tool for schools, societies and local historians.”

People can leave tributes online at www.devonremembers.co.uk, as well as add their own family stories about the Great War.