FAMILY and history researchers of the future will have reason to thank Maureen Fisher for she has brought together a comprehensive account of those from the village of Frizington whose lives were among the millions claimed by World War I.

In the grand scheme of things Frizington’s soldier contribution to the war was a tiny drop in an ocean of blood. In terms of loss from a small rural community, it was huge.

With the help of others, Maureen has worked to compile a modest 36-page booklet entitled Frizington’s Fallen, a tribute to those who went to war and never came back.

The content however has great significance.

Like in every city, town and village throughout Britain, the declaration of war with Germany on August 4, 1914, changed things forever.

Many young Frizingtonians went away never to return while those who did come back would struggle to pick up the pieces of their former lives.

Inspiration for the booklet came from villager, the late Bob Crosby whose father Robert had served with the Border Regiment in WWI and won the Military Medal and Bar. Fellow members of the Arlecdon History Group helped research and collate information to feed into the aim to create a permanent record.

Not all the identities of those from Frizington who enlisted are recorded, but the village’s War Memorials - of which there are three - have provided the names of most of those who perished. Though far from being a well-off community, and suffering the privations of post-war austerity, the people of Frizington were nevertheless determined to create memorials that would stand the test of time and remind future generations of the high price paid.

St Joseph’s war memorial was the first to be unveiled, in June 1918, and bears the names of 15 WWI dead. St Paul’s memorial takes the form of a plaque inside the church and the main one, the Main Street war memorial, lists 55 names. When the latter was unveiled in November 1926, around 2,000 people, accompanied by the TA Band, processed from the local HQ of the Border Regiment (the Masonic Hall) up the street.

Maureen’s book lists the names of the fallen in alphabetical order, beginning with Lieut Tom Anderson, 29, who was killed in action in East Africa and is buried in Tanzania, and ends with Private Jack Wright , 22, of the Scottish Rifles who was the son of John and Margaret Wright of Ennerdale Hall, and died in Palestine.

Between A for Anderson and W for Wright we find the names of Brown, Cook, Dixon, Gainford, Goldsworthy, Howell, Kennedy, Lightfoot, Robinson, Sloan…and many more.

There’s Alexander Rudd, well known for his Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling exploits, who served in France with the field ambulance only to die, aged 27, of Spanish flu in October 1918, as the war was in its final throes.

And there’s 25-year-old Pte Henry Burns, who had survived wounds suffered at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 but would finally succumb to further injuries received in action in April 1918, after four hard years.

He had been a blacksmith at Lowca Engineering Works.

His brother William had become a PoW and forced to act as stretcher bearer for the German wounded…and eat, cats, dogs and moles to survive.

Such poignant stories lie behind each name and Maureen hopes her book will prompt further digging by the descendants of these men.

n Although copies of the booklet have almost sold out, orders can still be placed by calling 01946 811633. The price is £5, and any profits after printing costs are met will, appropriately, go towards the upkeep of the village’s war memorials.