Portsmouth to add 1,500 new names of heroes left off city’s First World War memorial

But for decades their courage had been forgotten and their names overlooked on the city’s official memorial honouring the fallen.

But not anymore. After more than a century, Portsmouth is now finally ready to honour the 1,500 forgotten heroes of the First World War.

Portsmouth City Council has vowed to spend £45,000 to install new bronze plaques at the cenotaph, in Guildhall Square, which will sit alongside the thousands of other names already at the memorial.

Despite the best efforts of those at the time, research by city historian James Daly showed that hundreds of names had been left off the memorial when it was built.

In the aftermath of the war, records of the fallen were not totally complete, with some men still officially missing in action. Others might not have had relatives in the city who could submit their names for inclusion on the memorial.

While some may be recorded on memorials elsewhere in the country – because of their service with a particular regiment, for example.

Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: ‘This is the right thing to do following the centenary of the end of the war, which brought home to us all the sacrifices made during the conflict, and the need to remember those who fell.’

The names will be coming from a database compiled by council officer Mr Daly, author Portsmouth’s World War One Heroes.

Names have also been supplied by the Southern Co-operative, which lost workers during the conflict.

Working with Historic England, the council aims for the new additions to go on plaques on the wall surrounding the cenotaph, opposite the original lists of names.

Mr Daly was delighted the names were being added and said too many had ‘slipped through the net’ for far too long.

Explaining the original difficulty of adding all the names, he said the city had been ravaged by the war, with almost 11 per cent of the island’s military-aged men killed in the conflict.

‘That doesn’t sound like a lot but when you think of all the people that we know, neighbours, friends and family, you can’t even comprehend the effect that would have had on people,’ he said. ‘About ’6,000 people had been killed, there was terrible unemployment and poverty. It was a very difficult time for the city.

‘So I think 100 years later, looking back and being able to tell that story is really, really important.’

The initiative is being supported by the Pompey Pals Project, which aims to commemorate all those from the Portsmouth region who served during the 1914–18 conflict.

Gareth Lewis, chairman of the charity, said: ‘Everyone deserves to be remembered. This has been a long time coming and I hope other cities take up what Portsmouth is doing and get addendum panels put up that have got the names on there that are missing.’

The number of people killed in the city in the First World War was the greatest loss of life Portsmouth has ever known.

The war memorial was unveiled in 1921, in a ceremony attended by more than 30,000 people, after a campaign for public donations. It is inscribed with about 4,500 names.

Cllr Vernon-Jackson hoped to hoped to have the new names added as soon as possible.

He said: ‘As we’re now in 2019 there is an argument you try to get them done or the anniversary of the Treaty of Versaille that is the formal conclusion of the First World War which is this summer. I don’t know if we’ll get them done that quickly.

‘There is another school of thought that says the cenotaph itself was opened in 1921 and you try to do it for then. But I would like to get this done quicker, before 2021.’

Anyone with a suggestion for a name to be considered should contact [email protected]