Sherwood Foresters Western Front Memorial
Committee
Major John Cotterill MBE Mercian Regiment
Mr Cliff Housley Regimental Historian
Mr Eddie Edwards BEM Assistant Curator/Archivist The WFR Museum (Sherwood Foresters Collection) of the Mercian Regiment
Background
In the Great War 11,409 men of the Sherwood Foresters died on active service, the vast majority of them on the Western Front. Despite the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire having made this great sacrifice the Regiment was unique in having no lasting Memorial anywhere in France or Belgium.
140,000 men served in the ranks of the Regiment's 33 Battalions and of the 74 Infantry Regiments then in existence only three won more Victoria Crosses than the Sherwood Foresters in the war. Nine of the Foresters 10 Great War VCs were won on or over the Western Front.
In the aftermath of the war it was decided to commemorate the Fallen by the construction of a lanterne-des-mortes memorial in the shape of a lighthouse, shining out over the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border from Crich Hill. At that time it was a wise decision as travel to Europe was expensive and difficult. Times had changed and many thousands of people now visit the battlefields and cemeteries of the Western Front every year. These numbers grew annually and included many school groups and descendants from our counties.
Aim
The aim was to erect a suitable modest stone memorial of Derbyshire Sandstone engraved with a Sherwood Foresters Badge and explanatory text made by an approved stonemason, transported to Belgium and permanently erected at the Tyne Cot Cemetery on the Passchendaele Ridge.
Tyne Cot Cemetery was chosen as it is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery in the world. Here lie 11,908 individual graves, many of them marked "A Soldier of the Great War known only unto God". Along the back wall of the Cemetery is inscribed the names of the 35,000 men who died in the Ypres Salient between 16 August 1917 and the end of the War and have no known grave.
Appeal
In August 2008 an appeal was launched within the counties of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to raise the necessary funds.
Dedication Ceremony
On Saturday 24th October 2009 the Sherwood Foresters Western Front Memorial was unveiled at Tyne Cot Cemetery by the Lords Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The event was attended by over 500 guests from the UK in addition to the many Belgian dignitaries. Further photographs may be seen on the following links: Western Front Memorial Image page and Belgian Westhoek website and a slide show on Photobucket