Finding out more about local families in 1914-1918

19 May 2024

Members of WCT continue to follow up research about families living in Wimborne during the First World War. Recently, we met Len Pearce, who talked about his research for the Memorial book held at Wimborne Minster, which gives biographical details about the men from Wimborne and surrounding villages, who died in the First World War. As a boy, he remembers meeting the widows of some of the men who died, and his Grandfather was the Town Crier during that time. We also held a meeting in the Green Man pub on the corner of Old Road for residents of that road, and those attending were intrigued to hear about the significance of several families living there whose sons were killed. The Reverend Fletcher, writing in the Wimborne Minster Parish Magazine in September 1917, put it like this:

'There are few districts in the kingdom which have supplied so large a number of volunteers as the Old Road, in Wimborne, has done; and Sergt. Rossiter is the seventh inhabitant, from a road which contains only 24 cottages, who has given his life for his King and country. '

Apart from the Rossiters, the other families who lost sons were: Harvey, Gollop, Barrow, and Loaders. A poem entitled, “Patriotism At Wimborne - A True Story’ was written about the Loader’s story, and copies sold at one penny to contribute to St John’s Nursing Fund. The poem is held in the archive at Priest’s House Museum. http://www.blackmorevale.co.uk/World-War-Wimborne-family-s-tale/story-22967143-detail/story.html If you have any information about these families, or would like to get involved, please contact us.