November 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the Heritage Bank provided a special article for the autumn edition of the Buriton Parish Magazine – to reflect on some of the effects of the conflict on the parish and to say thank you to those to whom a great debt is owed.
At the time of the outbreak of the First World War the size of the population of the parish was very similar to that of today – about 780 people. Almost 200 men from the parish took part in the war meaning that about one in four of the residents that would normally have been seen around the village were away from home at some time.
Of those who went away, one in five (39 out of 197) did not return. With the casualties all being from the younger and fitter end of the age-range (all were under 40 when they died) their loss was inevitably felt in the parish in many ways for many years.
