Darwen
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The "Reveille" pages (Honouring local men commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial) are currently under construction.
The Memorial is listed alphabetically. Select either Blackburn or Darwen and then click on a soldier’s name for more information.
Reveille is a Heritage Lottery Funded (HLF) project which has created a digital archive for local men who perished in the First World War. Part of the HLF’s “First World War: Then and Now" programme, Reveille has preserved wartime history and re-awakened memories of those ordinary, local people who were caught up in world events and paid the ultimate price.
More than 4,000 men from Blackburn and Darwen lost their lives in the service of their country during the First World War. Many died in the Battle of the Somme and the primary purpose of Reveille has been to create a biographical record for each man who perished in the offensive and who, with no known grave, is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial in France.
Thiepval Memorial
There are 308 names etched in the stones of the monument and now each has a record on Cotton Town: a personalized, virtual headstone with its own tragic story.
This archive is the work of a dedicated team of volunteers and a lasting centennial legacy, both for the families of those whose forebears are listed and to the wider community.
Such generosity of spirit, mirrors an event which took place soon after the First World War, when local people in Blackburn raised money to help re-build the devastated French town of Peronne and the neighbouring village of Maricourt,. This was the gesture of a community, united by grief, pro-actively intent on giving positive meaning to personal loss. For more information please click here: Peronne & Maricourt
Reveille makes record of this act of kindness as it exemplifies the project’s holistic message that goodwill can prevail, in spite of extreme suffering and even as people strive to find meaning for events beyond their control. The conflict of the First World War had a lasting effect on families and communities and as we commemorate the sacrifice of local men, in the context of the Thiepval “fallen”, may we ensure that their contribution to our heritage is shared and understood.
