About the authors

Doreen Bartlett

Former Headteacher, Doreen Bartlett, serves as a Lay Elder at St Andrew’s, Melton. She has a keen personal interest in local history and was part of the original church group set up to explore the stories of the men whose names appear on the Melton war memorial. “Behind the Name” published in 2009 was the inspiration and starting point for this volume.

 

Mary Burgess

Mary Burgess has a family connection with the area that goes back many generations. She came to live in Melton not long after the original “Behind the Name” booklet was published and was so intrigued by the stories that she wanted to take the research further and find out more. Having always had a passionate interest in local history, she started researching her own Suffolk family and also the village and villagers of Melton.

 

Andy Pritchatt

While researching his own Suffolk roots, Andy Pritchatt hit a brick wall in his family tree so decided to try something different. It was after hearing an interview on Radio Suffolk one Sunday in 2014 about researching War Memorials that he began to investigate the names on the one in his home village. His research led to a book “Ufford and The Great War” being published the following year. Whilst working on his book he realised that it is the people that returned from the war who are the forgotten, rather than those whose names are inscribed on the memorial. He wanted to tell their stories too. This motivation carried on after joining the Melton Heritage Group research team in 2015, and he hopes that this book is a worthy record of the village and villagers a century ago.

 

Members of the Melton Heritage Group that made the book and website possible:

Bryony Abbott, Doreen Bartlett, Mary Burgess, Carol Duce, Jennifer Hall, Claire McBurney, Andy Pritchatt and Chas Taylor.

 

Disclaimer

Melton Heritage Group, founded in 2014, was a working partnership between St Andrew's, Melton Old Church Society, Melton Parish Council, Melton Primary School and Melton WI. The purpose of the group had been to plan a range of activities to commemorate and preserve the heritage of Melton in WW1 during the centenary anniversary years of this conflict.

A number of amateur local history enthusiasts within the larger body, took on the task of updating and expanding the booklet “Behind The Name”, first printed in 2009. The updated book, from which this website is derived, has been produced by volunteers, not to make a profit but to create a lasting record of village life during the Great War.

We have made every effort to check contents for accuracy and, to the best of our knowledge, all details in this publication are correct at the time of writing. The majority of the images on this site are either freely available in the public domain, gifts from family members and other supporters of the project, or free from copyright due to age.

Although we have made every effort to identify and acknowledge the sources of the images, there are inevitably some we have been unable to trace. Please contact the site owner at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will endeavour to include an acknowledgement in any future editions.

With Thanks to:

The Melton Heritage Group would like to thank the following people and organisations for their assistance in creating this book and website:
Trevor Ambrose
Nigel Beaden
Linda Beaden
Charmian Berry
Jim Bidwell
Colin Birkbeck
Jan Black
Robert Blake
Susan Botrill
Jim Brown
Anne Bryson
Mike Burges
Graham Burrows
Barbara Clarke
Wendy Colles
Jo Cox
Phil Curme
Colin De La Rue
Nadine Dowe
Heather Duffield
John Elwell
Daphne Evans
Steve Fayres
Michael Flint
Patsy Fosker
Don Friar
Julie Garton
Taff Gillingham
Jennifer Hall
Jon Hammond
John Hampton
Ian Harvie
Michael Hatchett
Chris Keeble
Anne Kresja
David Lennard
Ruth Lennard
Keith Lloyd
Juliet Lockhart
Steve Lockwood
Shelagh Lockwood
Cathy Marjoram
Pat Marr
Christopher Neukom
Dr. Edward Packard
Jane Preese
Victoria Proctor
Christine Pulford
Emma Rodwell
Julian Royale
Elaine Rush
Avril Rush
Peter Scaife
Kevin Scott
Emma Sealey
Barry Skoulding
Mary Skoulding
Prof. Pamela Smith
Alf Sore
Roger Sykes
Janet Thomas
Gwyn Thomas
Julian Thompson
Jenny Upson
Sue Whyte
Malcolm Whyte
Margaret Wylie
The original “Behind the
Name” team
Doreen Bartlett
Howard Davies
Marion Davis
Sarah Latimer
Glen Mattison
Jane Pitchford
Muriel Scott
Valerie Shelley
Elizabeth Whittingham

Archives:
Felixstowe Museum
Museum of East Anglian Rural Life
Suffolk Record Office (Ipswich)
Wickham Market Area Archive Centre
Woodbridge Library (Seckford Collection)
Woodbridge Museum

Grants and Support:
Bloor Homes
East Suffolk Council
Melton Messenger
Melton Old Church Society
Melton Parish Council
Melton Women’s Institute
St Andrew’s Church, Melton
Suffolk County Council
The Burness Parish Rooms
The Scarfe Trust

The National Lottery Heritage Fund under its “First World War: Then and Now” grant scheme.