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Local Heroes - Your streets were their streets Local Heroes - Your streets were their streets

The names of 197 local men who lost their lives in World War I are
inscribed on the bells of the Memorial Community Church in Plaistow. They are our local heroes

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A tattoo artist, married to a tattooed lady.

James Henry Ivory, who lived in York St, Canning Town, was a tattoo artist by profession, married to a tattooed lady. Thanks to his cousin twice removed who is researching his story for this fascinating detail.

A White Feather

“He worked in a bank before someone handed him a white feather and he joined up straight away. He went to war so quickly no one in his family ever saw him in his uniform. I have the Widow’s Penny that …

The Memorial Bells helped launch new HLF fund

The Memorial Bells were mentioned by the Heritage Lottery Fund, at a reception at the House of Lords in May 2013, as a good example of a local community finding out more about the impact of the First World War …

Read the story of Arthur Cole

Many thanks to Terence Cole and his late father Arthur Ernest Cole for this fascinating, if tragic, story along with photo: http://localheroes.org.uk/heroes/profiles/arthur-cornelius-cole

Updated information on Samuel Bell, Fleetwood Bolitho and Victor Zincraft

Thanks to relatives who have been in touch, new information about three Local Heroes has been added to their profiles – do look at the comments sections. We are very grateful to them for sharing what they know.

School visit to a War Memorial

If you are a local teacher and would like bring some students to visit a war memorial, particularly around Remembrance Sunday,  you would be very welcome to come and see and learn about the Memorial Bells – please get in …

All the Bells

At 8.12 am on 27 July 2012, to mark the start of the London Olympics, the Memorial Bells were played as part of Martin Creed’s Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly …

Local Heroes on your phone

We have a mini website optimised for mobile phones: http://localheroes.org.uk/mobile.

Watch our video

Click here to see a short video of the bells being played. Thanks to Sarah Acott for filming this.

Another relative has been in touch

It was good to hear from a niece of Charles Fairy. Do you think one of the men named here might be one of your relatives? Do get in touch!