Battlefield crosses on display at cemetery museum

Freddie Gick opened the museum to help restore and preserve the battlefield crosses

Commemorative crosses which once marked the temporary graves of World War One soldiers are on display at a new museum.

The small exhibition has been converted from a former gravediggers’ hut at Cheltenham Cemetery, which contains the war graves of 110 Commonwealth service personnel.

The crosses were originally built by the comrades of fallen soldiers in the battlefields of France and Belgium, but many were sent back to their next of kin.

Cheltenham Civic Society (CCS) member, Freddie Gick, launched the campaign to preserve the remaining crosses after he saw they were in poor condition.

The crosses had been displayed at the cemetery until they began to deteriorate

During World War One, the temporary graves of the fallen were marked by wooden crosses made from odd bits of wood retrieved from the battlefield, and erected by their surviving friends and comrades.

Later, when their remains were put to rest in graves maintained by the War Graves Commission, the wooden crosses were brought back to the UK and offered to the families of the men they commemorated.

The remaining unclaimed crosses were then given to the soldiers' home towns.

Cheltenham has 22 of these crosses, which were put on display for many years at the town’s cemetery in Bouncers Lane until their condition began to deteriorate.

The opening of the museum will allow the crosses to be restored and displayed for visitors to pay their respects.

The museum was opened by Edward Gillespie, the Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire and will be open to the public 365 days a year, during cemetery open hours.