News

British Civil Wars memorial database officially launched

8 November 2023

The British Civil Wars Memorial database was launched at the National Civil War Centre on 25 October.

The database is a collaborative crowd sourced resource created by the Battlefields Trust, Cromwell Association, Pike and Shot Society, Sealed Knot, John Hampden Society, National Civil War Centre, Fortress Study Group and the Scottish Battlefields Trust. It went live in March 2023 and currently has over 250 entries.

The launch was attended by over thirty people including leading Civil War academics.  Simon Marsh, the Battlefields Trust Research Coordinator, who led the project, opened proceedings by explaining its origins, the issues the project group faced, and the benefits they hoped the database would bring to researchers and those visiting memorials alike. 

Simon also reflected on the need to manage the project remotely due to the wide dispersal of team members across the country, commenting ‘I think this is the first time all the group have been in the same room at the same time, which shows that it is possible to deliver a project virtually’.

He added, ‘this online resource very much relies on members of the public contributing to it over time. We hope it might inspire those contributing or using the resource to find out more about this crucial period of our history’.    

Project member organisations next provided an explanation of their involvement in the project and why they were keen to participate before Kevin Winter from the National Civil War Centre demonstrated the database’s features.