MsLinda Hutton
Researcher
PGR Students
- ResearcherPGR Students
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I am researching Commemoration and Remembrance during and immediately after the First World War in the town of Barnsley, now in South Yorkshire. This includes investigating the processes of planning a war memorial (I am following the definition of war memorials used by the Imperial War Museum), the fundraising and decisions that need to be made in order to erect a memorial, including the ways in which the type, design, location and inscriptions on the memorials were chosen.
This is a very wide topic, even when restricted to a small Metropolian Borough like Barnsley (population 245,199 in 2021). A project during the Centenary of the First World War (2014-2018) discovered that there are many more memorials in the Borough than was previously thought. Therefore for my thesis I will be focussing on just a few questions which have arisen from my earlier research.
February 2022: Two years into my part-time studies my topic is resolving. I am studying the reasons why men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War, who were born in the Barnsley Borough area, were not commemorated on Barnsley area war memorials in the period 1915 to 1939 (the end date is slightly flexible between 1935 and 39). Currently I have collected just over 600 examples from a total of 3801 Barnsley connected (but not necessarily born) men and women who lost their lives 1914 to 1921. Both of these figures change as my research progresses. My original data set was taken from the Barnsley War Memorials Project's Roll of Honour published in 2018, which listed 3784 names. Additional names continue to present themselves as my research progresses, and a few names have been removed from the original list (when their link to Barnsley has proven to be optimistic rather than factual). Information on the lives of war widows and the destinations of family members leaving the area, are being researched in depth.
I have over 30 years experience in researching local and family history and these skills are proving useful in my academic research. The ability to create and use complex spreadsheets and a thorough knowledge of genealogical research methods are currently top of my list. Local knowledge and connections are also being well tested.
This is a very wide topic, even when restricted to a small Metropolian Borough like Barnsley (population 245,199 in 2021). A project during the Centenary of the First World War (2014-2018) discovered that there are many more memorials in the Borough than was previously thought. Therefore for my thesis I will be focussing on just a few questions which have arisen from my earlier research.
February 2022: Two years into my part-time studies my topic is resolving. I am studying the reasons why men and women, who lost their lives in the First World War, who were born in the Barnsley Borough area, were not commemorated on Barnsley area war memorials in the period 1915 to 1939 (the end date is slightly flexible between 1935 and 39). Currently I have collected just over 600 examples from a total of 3801 Barnsley connected (but not necessarily born) men and women who lost their lives 1914 to 1921. Both of these figures change as my research progresses. My original data set was taken from the Barnsley War Memorials Project's Roll of Honour published in 2018, which listed 3784 names. Additional names continue to present themselves as my research progresses, and a few names have been removed from the original list (when their link to Barnsley has proven to be optimistic rather than factual). Information on the lives of war widows and the destinations of family members leaving the area, are being researched in depth.
I have over 30 years experience in researching local and family history and these skills are proving useful in my academic research. The ability to create and use complex spreadsheets and a thorough knowledge of genealogical research methods are currently top of my list. Local knowledge and connections are also being well tested.