About

The people of Bolton have a long history of participating in events of national and international importance.  Their contribution in times of war and conflict has been no exception and the town is dotted with memorials to Boltonians who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Since 2013 Bolton Archives and Local Studies service have overseen a project to create and develop a database recording all of Bolton’s war dead and as much information as available about the service of those who survived.  In this centenary year of the outbreak of the First World War we have concentrated on those who served or fell during or as a result of that conflict, but we intend to include Boltonians who serve and/or died in other conflicts, from the Boer War to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In order to do this we have been collating information from war memorials, books of remembrance, rolls of honour, local newspapers and official records.

In addition to the database of individuals, we have recorded the details of as many of the civic, religious, public, private and commercial war memorials in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton. This includes areas which were not part of Bolton during the First World War, but now form parts of the Borough and also districts historically linked to Bolton, such as Turton, Edgworth, Ainsworth, Adlington and Little Hulton.

This information will also be passed on to the Imperial War Museum’s National Inventory of War Memorials.

If you have any information on memorials not included on the database, you can record the details on the contact forms at the bottom of each entry on this site or alternatively forms are available on the Bolton Library and Museum Services website and you can send them in to us.

What the database includes

Where the information is available (or applicable – unknown, unavailable or inapplicable entries are greyed out), each entry will typically include:

  • Name
  • Rank (last held per available official military documentation)
  • Unit(s)
  • Birth Date (only full valid dates can be recorded – please DO NOT send just years of birth, we already mostly know these but they CANNOT be recorded in the database)
  • Place of Birth
  • Residence
  • Family/next of kin
  • Where enlisted and date (only full valid dates can be recorded)
  • Date of death (only full valid dates can be recorded) and age at death
  • Place of death
  • Medals and awards
  • Locations of local grave and/or memorials
  • Commonwealth War Grave Commission information
  • Inclusions on War Memorials / in Rolls of Honour
  • References in local newspapers

NOTE: The database is being collated in collaboration with the Salford War Memorials Project (SWARM) and therefore also contains Salford information.