The Daily Telegraph recently printed an article on ‘Thankful Villages’. This was the name given by the writer and topographer Arthur Mee to villages that had not lost a single serviceman in the First World War. At the time he was writing, in the 1930s and 40s, he identified 43 parishes as Thankful Villages. That he found so few communities where no-one lost their lives brings home the scale of the losses of the First World War.
The Telegraph report stated that these Thankful Villages did not erect war memorials. In fact, immediately following the war, many of these villages did erect war memorials, giving thanks for the safe return of all those who had served. Some of these were added to after the Second World War when they again had cause to be thankful.
Twenty seven Thankful (or Blessed) Village memorials can be seen on our database.
See list of Thankful Village memorials
‘Thankful Villages’ finally get plaques – Read article in The Daily Telegraph
