BOOK REVIEWS
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FIRST WORLD WAR GRAVES AND MEMORIALS IN GWENT (Volume 1)
Ray Westlake |
In this, his latest book, Ray Westlake does what he is so good at - choosing a subject and then researching it so carefully and methodically that he is in possession of just about every fact there is. In this case he has chronicled the War Graves and memorials in Gwent, the former county of Monmouthshire until reorganisation in 1976, and has taken as his geographical limits the old county boundary as it was at the time of the Great War.
Within these limits he has located literally hundreds of war graves and memorials and in this first volume he presents details of about 260 memorials and over 400 graves. Further volumes will complete the record.
For each memorial included in this volume, there is a description and a record of any inscription plus the name(s) recorded. With his usual attention to detail, Ray Westlake doesn't limit himself to the openly visible public memorials such as may be seen in almost every town and village in the UK - he includes the more difficult to find ones such as those in schools, workplaces and churches, even those which commemorate only one name. I don't know how many of these memorials and graves are illustrated on the book, but almost every page has at least one photograph, with many pages having two or three.
Although the book details the memorials and graves by location in alphabetical order it is far more than just a list. The memorials described and illustrated are typical of those to be found in other parts of the UK so, to a certain extent, what Ray Westlake has discovered and chronicled in Gwent is also an example of what we ourselves could expect to find in our own locations, if we had time to search them all out. We see the functional and the reflective. We see the local memorials with the names of the dead listed with no account taken of rank. Other communities felt obliged to list the officers first, holding on to respect for social class and rank. However, the war had begun the process of sweeping away this kind of social distinction, with the Imperial War Graves Commission deciding that there would be no distinction of rank in soldiers' burials. This was not always a popular decision, and Ray Westlake also illustrates how some families, if they could not provide a distinctive memorial in a cemetery abroad, were able to do so at home in the form of stained glass windows, plaques in churches and so on.
All in all, I think this book is an excellent record and one which, by collecting together details of so many graves and memorials, is a fine Act of Remembrance in its own right.
First World War Graves and Memorials in Gwent (Volume 1)
is published by Wharncliffe Books
It is available from the Ray Westlake Military Books online catalogue at
www.ray-westlake.com
Hardback, 208pages - illustrated with many photographs
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