Are there any towns in the United Kingdom that do not have some sort of First and/or Second World War Memorial? If so, was this from choice or because they did not lose a single inhabitant in either conflict?
There were 31 villages in England which did not lose any men in the First World War, seven of these being in Somerset. These are sometimes called Thankful Villages. While a few places erected memorials commemorating all those who served, I am fairly sure that none of these did. I am not sure about the Second World War, but it seems very likley that a number of the 31 also suffered no losses in this conflict since the number of casualties was much less.
Michael Lamm, Birmingham
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A relatively large number of towns and villages in Northern Ireland do not have a public war memorial, although the majority of churches in these towns would have some form of memorial inside their buildings. It is unlikely that this absence is the result of no residents being killed. Sometimes it proved impossible to collect sufficient money for the project, while in other cases it could not be agreed what form the memorial should take. Occasionally political factors may have militated against the public commemoration of “British” war dead. Also, memorials do not commemorate only the dead. This is particularly the case in Northern Ireland where memorials often list the names of those who served alongside those who were killed, testament perhaps to the fact that conscription was never applied to Ireland, meaning that every man listed was a volunteer.
Catherine Switzer, Londonderry
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Why do we have three lions on our shirts?
The three “lions” on the England football strip are clearly meant to be the three leopards on the quarters of the Royal Standard. The three leopards were introduced by Richard the Lionheart more than 700 years ago and have remained to this day. How the leopard managed to lose its spots we do not know, but it seems unlikely now that they will ever be known as leopards in the context of the England football team.
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Garry Willits, Heworth, York
We don’t!
Colin Cox, Glasgow
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Is the art of graffiti dead?
Further to your previous responses (Q&A, June 11, 14, 15), My sister tells me of once finding graffiti on a lavatory wall: an anarchist symbol with the slogan “Smash all governments now!” Unable to resist, she perpetrated her one and only graffiti offence, by adding: “Why should I do what you say?”
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Catherine Rose, Olney, Buckinghamshire