Colchester’s War Memorials

The impressive war memorial at the east end of Colchester High Street is a major landmark, but Colchester possess more than fifty other memorials dating from the Great War of 1914 – 1918.
In October 2017 Dr Paul Rusiecki was requested by the Colchester Civic Society to produce a survey of all the borough’s war memorials connected with the Great War. The aim was to establish whether any of them required repairs and/or refurbishment during 2018, the centenary of the Armistice, and the year in which funding for such matters might reasonably be expected to end. We are pleased to report that none were found to be in need of repair.
In addition, included in this survey is a transcription of all the unveiling and dedication ceremonies which were held, from the very first one, at the Colchester and East Essex Cricket Club in 1915, until the most recent, at North Primary School in 2017. In this way the Civic Society now possesses a comprehensive list of these ceremonies, together with the names of the men who were listed as having fallen in the war.
The full document which runs to approximately 150 pages and 45,000 words, plus numerous photographs, is available here as a PDF which you may download to read offline.