THE first memorials to the First World War began to appear in towns and villages as fighting continued across the Channel.

Hundreds were unveiled to general grief and mass mourning long before the war ended.

But how many of them, especially from churches, have been lost, the names of the men who made the supreme sacrifice, gone and forgotten?

Too many, says local historian Tony Foster who has helped recover several memorials.

But it’s getting harder.

A recent success for researchers has been the modest, cardboard roll of honour which used to grace the imposing Trinity Wesleyan Methodist Church which once stood at the corner of Preston New Road and Montague Street, Blackburn.

The memorial was passed on for safe keeping to the small Chapel Lane Wesleyan Methodist Church and Sunday School, built in the shadow of Hoghton Tower in 1794.

But then that church closed and when builders and new owners were working there, the commemoration was discovered.

It was in a very poor state and would have been skipped but for the timely arrival of researcher Roy Fox.

He searched all the names and realised that they were from around the Trinity Chapel in Blackburn.

He found the baptism register and two boxes of papers at the Lancashire Archives in Preston and got in touch with the Lancashire Family History and Heraldry Society – which is where Tony Foster, a club official, came in.

Tony said: “The roll of honour was in a very poor state and badly twisted.

“A large piece had been lost from a corner and the names were very faded.

“However, we got to work on it and it has been totally remade.”

Now, the memorial has been passed on to Superintendent Minister John Howard-Norman at Wesley Hall, in Fielden Street, Blackburn.

Among more than 40 names is that of Nurse Ann Ellen Beaver, of the Territorial Force Nursing Service, who served for two years before illness forced her to leave.

She was awarded the Silver War Badge.

Ann, the only child of Edward Eli Beaver and Mary Ellen (nee Brown), was born on May 19, 1890 at Griffin Street, Witton.

The family later moved to Leamington Road.

Mary Ellen later returned to nursing after the war and died in 1965.

Her funeral service took place at Trinity Paradise Church, Blackburn – which is now the site of Wesley Hall.