Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Crawley War Memorial with Renny Richardson
We are joined by Renny Richardson, author of a trilogy of books about the men of Crawley in West Sussex who fought in the Great War. Renny chats with Paul Reed, who was born in Crawley, about the town at war and the stories of the men commemorated on the war memorials here.
RECOMMENDED READING:
You can order Renny’s Book here: Aftertones of War by Renny Richardson
Podcast Extras:
8 Comments on “Crawley War Memorial with Renny Richardson”
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Old Front Line 
Another great podcast Paul really enjoyed that one. Some very fascinating and sad stories about the people of Crawley. Just brilliant, thank you.
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Thanks John – and a great contribution with all those stories from Renny!
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Similar to Renny a family history question led me to try and identify all the men on my mothers family hometown war memorial. 638 in total, though some or still “missing “. Many of Renny’s challenges were familiar and I’m impressed that he has carried through to writing books about it – a real achievement. Many thanks for a great podcast and it reminds me to do more with my work
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Thanks, Gavin.
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Thoroughly enjoyable pod again Paul and of course Renny.
I’m lucky in respect of the local men of my Dad’s home town of Coatbridge in Central Scotland. Almost immediately post War a local Clergyman organised the compiling of a fantastic book on the War.
It contains a potted history of the Scottish and Irish Regiments (the town had a huge Irish origin community) and the various support Corps, after each description there follows a list of the fallen of each Regt/Corps including in most cases a photo of the man, his address and former employment, this is followed by the names of those who served with the same info, less the photo. Men are also listed by other Regts and services also to cover everything from Camel Corps to R.N.D.
Also included are numerous photos of the local Iron industry works and their many Women employees which proliferated in the town making everything from light railway rails to Livens bombs.
There’s photos of the local VAD Hospital, fundraising drives and a piece on rationing including the “ha’penny loaf”.
I’m lucky to have a digital copy of the book and I’m eternally grateful to Rev Lyndsay for his work in putting it together.
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Wow, how fantastic is that! What is his book called? I’d love to read it.
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Thank you Paul and Renny for some poignant stories of one town’s Great War.
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Thank you, Stephen!
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