War Memorial & CWGC Gravestones

The Imperial War Museum's War Memorials Register defines a War Memorial as "any tangible object which has been erected or dedicated to commemorate those killed as a result of war, conflict or peacekeeping; who served in war or conflict; or who died whilst engaged in military service".  This includes gravestones which commemorate a casualty buried elsewhere.  There must be a clear statement on the memorial (or in a printed document such as a newspaper report from the time) that defines the commemorative purpose of the feature and reports its erection.

Thus gravestones which include wording such as: died of wounds received in action, killed in action, fell in France, died on active service, reported missing in action, or even killed accidentally while on active service all count as War Memorials.  The wording is a "clear statement" that the purpose of recording that person's name on the gravestone is as a memorial.

At August 2021 there were 530 War Memorial Gravestones in the Barnsley area.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) mark the burial places or commemorate the missing in both World Wars.  Although the gravestones they have erected in our local cemeteries to mark the resting places of our soldiers are not War Memorials (as the man is actually buried there) the information on them was valuable to us as part of the creating the Barnsley Roll of Honour. 

Edit: As of early 2021 we began to add separate pages for CWGC burials to this website in order to link them to Find A Grave. This is very much a work in progress and given the large number in the Barnsley area (430 at August 2021) this will take a while.

The terminology on the website is being updated too, using First World War (FWW) rather than World War One (WW1), and Second World War (SWW) rather than World War Two (WW2). This change has been influenced by the preference of modern military historians.  

The Dearne Memorial Group have a comprehensive database of burials in Barnsley's cemeteries available.  A search is free, but a small charge is made for details. All proceeds go towards the upkeep of Barnsley's cemeteries. 

This page is an index to the cemeteries and churchyards in Barnsley where we have found War Memorial gravestones and/or CWGC gravestones.  This is ongoing research, the date (if given) is the last reported update, more memorial gravestones may yet be added to our lists. Click on the link (if present, it will be coloured blue) to go to a page with a list of names and thumbnail pictures of individual gravestones, and where available, further links to larger pictures and much more information about each man. This may be on Find A Grave, on this website, or on another external site. Photographs on this site were taken by volunteers connected to the project. Where possible the photographer has been identified.

There is a Community page on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website for the Barnsley men who have War Memorial Gravestones. Unfortunately the Lives website was frozen and archived in Spring 1919 and cannot be added to or amended. 

This site will be updated as often as possible. Please let us know if you have any additional information or corrections.

Ardsley Churchyard and Cemetery War Memorial Gravestones -  21 WW1 & 7 WW2 memorial gravestones

Ardsley Churchyard and Cemetery CWGC Burials  2 FWW burials in the churchyard and 9 FWW and 6 SWW burials in the cemetery.

Barnsley Cemetery - 133 WW1, 23 WW2 and 1 Boer War memorial gravestones (at Feb 2021 with grateful thanks to Wayne Bywater) plus 130 CWGC burials

Barnsley St George's Churchyard - 3 WW1 memorial gravestones

Bolton upon Dearne Cemetery - 18 WW1 & 10 WW2  memorial gravestones plus 17 CWGC burials (Sept 2018)

Brierley Cemetery - 3 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 1 CWGC burial

Carlton Cemetery - 7 WW1 & 3 WW2  memorial gravestones plus 2 CWGC burials

Cawthorne Churchyard and Cemetery - 2 WW1 & 1 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 2 CWGC burials (25 September 2014)

Cudworth Churchyard and Cemetery  - 17 WW1 and 7 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 28 CWGC burials (8 Feb 2021)

Darfield Churchyard and Cemetery - 24 WW1 and 4 WW2  memorial gravestones plus 19 CWGC (8 Feb 2021)burials 

Darton Churchyard and Cemetery War Memorial Gravestones - 24 WW1 & 3 WW2 memorial gravestones (6 Feb 2021)

Darton Churchyard and Cemetery CWGC Burials - 24 CWGC burials

Dodworth Churchyard and Cemetery - 3 memorial gravestones plus 5 CWGC burials (25 January 2015) 

Elsecar Churchyard and Cemetery - 9 WW1 & 3 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 3 CWGC burials (6 April 2015)

Felkirk (St Peter) Churchyard CWGC Burials 2 FWW burials, both family gravestones and 2 SWW burials, one is a family gravestone.

Felkirk (St Peter) Churchyard War Memorial Gravestones  3 FWW war memorial gravestones

Gawber Churchyard -  2 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 4 CWGC burials (26 May 2014)

Great Houghton Cemetery

Grimethorpe Cemetery - 3 WW1 and 2 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 12 CWGC burials (16 June 2014)

High Hoyland All Saints Churchyard - 3 WW1 & 1 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 1 CWGC burial

Hoyland Nether, St Peter's Churchyard extension - 1 pre WW1 & 17 WW1 war memorial gravestones plus 14 CWGC burials

Hoyland Nether Cemetery - 3 WW1, 2 WW2 and 1 civilian war memorial gravestone plus 13 CWGC burials

Hoyland, St Helen's Churchyard - 1 CWGC burial

Hoylandswaine St. John the Evangelist Churchyard - 3 memorial gravestones plus 1 CWGC gravestone (11 June 2014) 

Jump and Hemingfield Cemetery - 6 WW1 memorial gravestones plus 6 CWGC burials

Monk Bretton Cemetery War Memorial Gravestones - 13 WW1 & 8 WW2 memorial gravestones (20 May 2014)

Monk Bretton Cemetery CWGC burials - 21 CWGC burials

Penistone Stottercliffe Cemetery - 6 WW1 & 1 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 11 CWGC burials  (5 September 2015)

Royston Cemetery - 4 WW1 & 2 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 11 CWGC burials (21 April 2014)

Silkstone Churchyard and Cemetery - 6 WW1 & 2 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 4 CWGC burials (11 June 2014)

Staincross Churchyard - 1 WW1 & 6 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 3 CWGC burials (26 May 2014)

Tankersley St Peter's Churchyard War Memorial Gravestones - 3 FWW and 2 SWW memorial gravestones (23 April 2022)

Tankersley St Peter's Churchyard CWGC burials - 5 CWGC burials

Thurgoland Churchyard & Cemetery - 1 WW1 memorial gravestone plus 3 CWGC burials

Thurnscoe Cemetery -  4 WW1 & 7 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 10 CWGC burials

Wath-upon-Dearne Cemetery (out of area, but for a man born in Barnsley) 1 WW1 memorial gravestone

Wombwell Cemetery - at least 63 (at September 2015) WW1 & WW2 memorial gravestones plus 31 CWGC burials

Worsborough St Mary's Church Burial Ground - 12 WW1 and 1 WW2 memorial gravestones plus 7 CWGC burials (8 Feb 2021)

Worsbrough St Thomas Churchyard and Cemetery - 11 WW1 memorial gravestones plus 13 CWGC burials (1 June 2015) 

Wortley St Leonard's Churchyard - 3 CWGC burials