Bexley remembers the First World War

Staff and volunteer researchers at Bexley Local Studies and Archives Centre have been compiling a database of all known servicemen with local links who died during the Great War.

Lists of the men who died during the years 1914 to 1917 are available below. It's still a work in progress and we will be revising and updating it in the months to come, but we hope that this unique resource will be of use to anyone studying Bexley's WW1 heritage.

We are also producing a photographic database of pictures of Bexley's 'fallen'. So far, we have over 600 pictures. Contact us for more details.

• 1914 Bexley Borough WW1 Roll of Honour (Excel, 397KB)
• 1915 Bexley Borough WW1 Roll of Honour (Excel, 123KB)
• 1916 Bexley Borough WW1 Roll of Honour (Excel, 212KB)
• 1917 Bexley Borough WW1 Roll of Honour (Excel, 313KB)
• 1918 Bexley Borough WW1 Roll of Honour (Excel, 487KB)

Seven banners have been produced to reflect on life in Bexley during the First World War.

Using archives, images and records available at Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre the seven banners each take a different theme.

• Your country needs you (PDF, 609KB)
• Voluntary hospitals (PDF, 480KB)
• Women, war and work (PDF, 522KB)
• Queen's Hospital Sidcup (PDF, 515KB)
• Serving King and Country (PDF, 442KB)
• School days 1914 to 1918 (PDF, 628KB)
• Not forgotten (PDF, 495KB)

During the nine months of campaigning in Gallipoli the Bexley area lost almost 40 men.

Two banners have been produced using resources available at the Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre to tell the stories of some of the Bexley men who were involved in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915.

• Bexley's Gallipoli Roll of Honour (PDF, 426KB)
• The scholar, the Vicar and the Doctor (PDF, 395KB)

1 July 2016 marked 100 years since the start of the Battle of the Somme during the First World War.

One of the bloodiest battles in human history, it was fought on both sides of the River Somme in France and by the end on 18 November 1916 more than 1,000,000 men were wounded or killed. To commemorate this anniversary ten banners have been produced focusing on how this battle affected the people of Bexley both at the Front where almost 200 men with Bexley connections died and at home.

• The first day - 1 July 1916 (PDF, 1MB)
• The Battle (PDF, 1MB)
• The young and the old (PDF, 1MB)
• Officers and gentlemen and Typical Tommys (PDF, 1MB)
• Brothers in Arms and From Near and Far (PDF, 1MB)
• The bitter end - Autumn 1916 (PDF, 1MB)
• The home front in pictures (PDF, 1MB)
• The home front - what the papers said (PDF, 1MB)
• Victor Sharman - a Somme survivor's story (PDF, 1MB)
• Bexley's Somme Roll of Honour (PDF, 1MB)

Crayford resident and primary school teacher, Peter Daniel, has written the education resource booklet, Chalky' the Crayford Swallow: The Story of Private William White, which tells the story of Private William White.

This full colour educational resource includes many photographs and documents from the collections at Bexley Local Studies and Archive Centre and the National Army Museum and is beautifully illustrated by the award winning author and illustrator Michael Foreman. The cross curricular booklet contains many original and thought provoking class room activities aimed at Key Stage 2; History, Literacy, Numeracy, Art and Geography.

• Song book (PDF, 197KB)
• Design a job advertisement or poster (PDF, 73KB)