WWI Roll of Honour returns to its original Wrexham home

An artefact of major historic and cultural significance for north east Wales has returned to its original home.

A copy of the Wrexham and East Denbighshire Roll of Honour of the Fallen of the Great War (World War One) has taken pride of place in the library at Coleg Cambria Yale.

Early in the last century the site was occupied by Roseneath Auxiliary Hospital before being converted to a hospital for wounded soldiers and later the Memorial Hospital – where the item was first kept – from 1926 until the early nineties when it became Yale College.

It was then the roll of honour was moved to the County Museum, where it remains due to its fragile condition.

However, with the support of the museum, the college now has a physical copy of the document and there are plans to digitise it in the future.

Simon Mapp, an Academic Skills Advisor at Yale, is pleased they have managed to return the roll of honour to “its rightful home”.

“The original was kept in the hospital, which is now the college’s art block, so it’s of great importance locally,” he said.

“The library felt that, with the approach of Remembrance Sunday, it was an appropriate time to ensure the return of the book that records those young men who sacrificed their lives in the 1914-18 war, some of whom would have been pupils at Grove Park School, which to this day forms part of the Yale site.

“It will now be available to view in the library for students and staff, so we would like to thank the County Museum, notably its Archive Assistant Mark Taylor, for their help with this project.”

Cambria’s Chaplain Tim Feak added: “The library teams across all our sites do a great job in raising awareness across college communities about some really important issues and events.

“None more so than Remembrance Day, so having this at Yale and having the opportunity to see the names of the people who sacrificed their lives for our freedom really adds a layer of depth and poignancy to our reflections this year.

“Thank you so much to Simon for facilitating this, it’s a real gift to our community.”