Project Update 2014

Great War Exhibition

On 2nd/3rd August Back to the Front mounted an Exhibition displaying many aspects of the Great War as it impacted the local villages. The Exhibition included photos and stories depicting the experiences of the villagers at the Front and at Home during the War. It also showed the War as seen from the German side of the wire, by displaying a slide show of over 200 scanned photographs from the Vollmert family archive, that have been made available to the Project.

Candlelit Vigil

To commemorate the 100th Anniversary of start of the Great War on 4th August 1914, Back to the Front organised a Candlelit Vigil in the Village Garden in Kings Langley. Contemporary songs were sung by the Kings Langley Community Choir, Poems were read, and the Rev Matthew Cooper led the six hundred attendees in prayer. The names of the Fallen from the villages were recited and the Vigil closed with the laying of wreaths at the War Memorial.

Back to the Front Noticeboards

A new noticeboard has been erected by the Abbots and Kings Langley Parish Councils, adjacent to the respective War Memorials. Information researched for each of the local men Killed in Action will be displayed from the 100th Anniversary of their death.

St Lawrence Church Abbots Langley

During the Great War, a bell was tolled at 12 noon for one minute on the day when news was received of a death of a villager at the Front. From September onwards, on the 100th Anniversary of each death the Church bell will be rung 100 times at 12 noon – one toll for each of the 100 years.

200 New Men Found

Research of the 1918 Hertfordshire Absent Voters Records has unearthed another 200 men from the villages, as yet unrecorded in the Project archives.

Leavesden Green Research Group

A new community-based group has been formed to research the 186 men from the Leavesden area.

Langleybury Roll of Honour Found

A glass-framed Roll of Honour listing the names of over 150 men from the Langleybury and Hunton Bridge area has been found, The Roll of Honour adds 90 new men to those previously discovered by the Project.