Lives of the First World War

Tyne Cot Cemetery, which bears witness to the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly known as the Battle of Passchendaele, is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in the world in terms of burials. There are 11,961 Commonwealth servicemen buried there, of whom more than 8,300 remain unidentified. The site also contains the Tyne Cot Memorial Wall to the Missing, which commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom and New Zealand who died on the Ypres Salient after 16th August 1917 and whose graves are not known.

A bronze memorial tablet was produced for the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited, designed to be cast several times, and was installed in 1922-23 at Head Office in Liverpool, the 68 Lombard Street office in London, and at other regional District Offices. Headed, “Gratefully dedicated by the proprietors of the Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited to the memory of members of the staff who fell in the Great War”, with “They whom this tablet commemorates were numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom. Let those that come after see to it that their names be not forgotten.”. The memorial at Water Street in Liverpool is still in situ, although the building is no longer a bank, and there is also one on display at Barclays Head Office at 1 Churchill Place.

A printed roll of honour entitled “Service Roll of Martins Bank”, listing “Those who did not return” and “Ex-Service Men 1914-1919”, was compiled in 1931 for the centenary of the Bank of Liverpool, and comprises of a list of staff of all the constituent banks in the Martins group (Bank of Liverpool, Martins Bank, Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited, Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank, Cocks Biddulph, Palatine Bank, Halifax Commercial Bank, Cattle Trade Bank, Equitable Bank). It used to be on permanent display at the former Martins head office at Water Street in Liverpool, but was transferred to Barclays Group Archives in 2007 when Barclays sold the building. The image shows the cover of the book.

A printed roll of honour entitled “Service Roll of Martins Bank”, listing “Those who did not return” and “Ex-Service Men 1914-1919”, was compiled in 1931 for the centenary of the Bank of Liverpool, and comprises of a list of staff of all the constituent banks in the Martins group (Bank of Liverpool, Martins Bank, Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited, Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank, Cocks Biddulph, Palatine Bank, Halifax Commercial Bank, Cattle Trade Bank, Equitable Bank). It used to be on permanent display at the former Martins head office at Water Street in Liverpool, but was transferred to Barclays Group Archives in 2007 when Barclays sold the building. The image shows the title page of the book.

A printed roll of honour entitled “Service Roll of Martins Bank”, listing “Those who did not return” and “Ex-Service Men 1914-1919”, was compiled in 1931 for the centenary of the Bank of Liverpool, and comprises of a list of staff of all the constituent banks in the Martins group (Bank of Liverpool, Martins Bank, Bank of Liverpool and Martins Limited, Lancashire & Yorkshire Bank, Cocks Biddulph, Palatine Bank, Halifax Commercial Bank, Cattle Trade Bank, Equitable Bank). The information printed for each person consists of initials & surname, plus regiment. The image shows the page of the book which features this person’s name in the list of “Those who did not return”.