I’ve been researching a local Second World War memorial – the Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham Gas Company Roll of Honour 1939–1945 – which records the names of local men who lost their lives during the conflict.
This memorial was only recently rediscovered in the basement of the former Gas Company building on Rochester High Street, having been out of public view for many years. With the building now up for sale, the future of this Roll of Honour is uncertain, and there is a real possibility that it could once again be lost. I have contacted the Imperial War Museums, who have confirmed that a photograph will be added in due course to their online War Memorials Register, helping to ensure that at least a record of the memorial will be preserved.
The memorial is a framed, varnished wooden board featuring the crests of the City of Rochester, Chatham, and Gillingham, with lettering inscribed in gold. The heading reads:
1939 + THEY SERVED + 1945
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Beneath this are listed the initials, surnames, and service of those to whom it is dedicated – almost all in uniform, though one, a civilian killed in an air raid, is recorded simply as “In the Company’s Service”.
I approached this research with some hesitation. My work on the Kent Electric Power Company memorial had been more emotional than I anticipated, bringing home the reality that so many young men died not simply in war, but because of it. Yet that same realisation made this project feel necessary. If this memorial were to disappear, then the risk is not only the loss of an object, but the quiet fading of the lives it commemorates.
As before, I was struck by how young many of these men were, and by the varied circumstances of their deaths. Some were killed in action, but others died through accident, illness, or the many unseen hazards that accompany wartime service. Each one was a son, a brother, perhaps a husband or sweetheart – each life shaped by duty, and cut short by conflict.
Click on a button below to explore these men’s stories. Links to their Commonwealth War Graves Commission records are included at the foot of each account.
Each name on the Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham Gas Company Roll of Honour represents a life interrupted and a story at risk of being forgotten. By bringing these stories together, I hope not only to preserve them, but to honour a simple, enduring promise: that they will be remembered.
You can also read about the Kent Electric Power Company Roll of Honour, another local memorial whose stories have been brought back into the light.
