A COVENTRY heritage group has created a database allowing residents to discover if a serviceman who died in the First World War lived in their street – or even learn about the role unknown relatives played.
The Coventry Society has paid tribute to the city’s fallen, hoping its new website ‘Hero in my Street’ can contribute to them never being forgotten.
The database has gone live only months after the nation celebrated 100 years since the armistice of the Great War.
The group hopes the newly produced information will assist local historians, family researchers, communities and schools to discover more about the lives that were cut short.
The website will eventually visualise the loss experienced by wives, mothers, parents, siblings and the community in their area on an interactive map of the city.
It is hoped that following discussions with military charity the Royal British Legion the format for this project could be rolled out across the country.
This would enable many more to take an interest in the devastating event which has now passed into distant history, the group says.
It says much has been made of the devastating Blitz of the Second World War which claimed hundreds of lives in the city.
But from a population of 110,000, over 2,000 Coventry men left to fight in the First World War never to return home, it adds.
Coventry Society member Vince Hammersley created an online A to Z street index giving details of address, name, age, date of death and parents or wife of those from Coventry who fell.
It also contains the location of a grave or memorial, medals (where known), regiment, squadron or ship.
Mr Hammersley said: “Although, thankfully, it is not possible to walk in their shoes, it is still possible to walk on their streets and to remember their sacrifice.”
Many records were destroyed by fire in the Second World War, so the list, which currently contains nearly 1,200 entries, is incomplete but will grow as further information presents itself, the group hopes.
Follow this link to see if there was a hero in your street: heroinmystreet.com/
