From September 1914 right through to 1919 the Parish Churches of St Lawrence (Abbots Langley) and St Pauls (Langleybury) both maintained a Roll of Honour of those serving in the Great War. At St Lawrence the Vicar, Arthur Parnell, requested that the names of those serving be recorded in a register held at the Church, and each month the names were printed in the Parish Magazine. For Abbots Langley the detailed records were maintained from September 1914 to September 1916. From then the Magazine only recorded new additions to the Services each month, but printed a full list of those serving each January and a final Roll of Honour at the end of the War in December 1918. The reason given was that it was becoming more difficult to obtain paper and ink for the Magazine as the War progressed and supplies became more scarce. At Langleybury, the Parish Magazine sporadically recorded some of those serving throughout the War, and was not published at any time throughout the War. However in August 2014 a hand-written scroll listing the 154 men of the Langleybury Roll of Honour was discovered.
Where records are published in the Parish Magazines, in the early days of the War the information listed is very basic, and a person may just be listed as “in the Army”. Many recruits may have enlisted but at that point had not been mobilised and attached to a specific unit. As the months went by the details of battalion number, regiment and rank are listed. For some men these details change as the person changed status or unit, but for others their record remains unchanged throughout the War. There may also have been a time lag between the Churches being informed of a change and being able to publish the information, so whilst the information provides an excellent record, it must be checked against other records for accuracy. However, at times it is the only information that exists for a specific person.
From its research the Project is planning to re-create the Rolls of Honour for each of the communities, updated to include newly discovered men and women and with additional information for each person. Details will start to be added to this web-site as they become available.