The POWLESLAND War Dead

Countries

During both the First and Second World Wars a total of 1,700,000men and women of the Commonwealth forces died. Of this vast number the remains of just over half were found and their graves have been marked with a headstone. Where the remains were not found, the name has been commemorated on a memorial. At present there are war graves in 150 different countries; mostly in the 2,500 war cemeteries and plots have have been created to remember them.

Of all those people who died, in the great Wars, the name Powlesland is only recorded, either by headstone or memorial, at 10 sites in 5 different countries.

Am I blessed with a lucky name or is it just a very uncommon one? It was this thought that prompted me to try and find out more about the history of the name.

To view the Powlesland war dead in a particular country, select it from the list above.

The country list will show the town, memorial or cemetery, a brief description of the memorial location and the names of the dead for that location.

The Forces List will allow you to quickly view the names of all the dead, or just those from a particular branch of the Armed Services (interestlingly there are no Powlesland war dead from the Air Force - did we just not serve there or simply survived the conflicts?)

Sadly there appears to have been a double loss for Henry and Mary Powlesland, of Greenawell Cottage, Moretonhampstead, Devon - their 2 sons dying together aboard HMS Indefatigable, during the Battle of Jutland.

The Battle of Jutland took place on May 31, 1916. After 27 minutes, of the battle, a hit on the fore turret penetrated the magazine spaces of Indefatigable and blew the ship in half, and she sank at 16:05 with the loss of 1,017 crew; there were only four survivors.