THE great majority of war-related deaths in the rural communities around Coniston were overseas and official policy was that men were buried close to where they fell in action.

This gave rise to the hundreds of Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries with their distinctive white headstones - but left friends and relatives at home without a traditional church funeral.

The answer was to held a memorial service and hundreds of these would have been held throughout South Cumbria during the war.

One was held at St Andrew's Church in Coniston and was reported in the Barrow News on Saturday, May 19 in 1917.

Leading the ceremony was the Reverend F. T. Wilcox and it was held particularly in memory of recently-killed Coniston soldiers Sgt C. Shaw, Cpl R. Dowthwaite, L/Cpl Jas Bennett and Pte Walter Pepper.

The article noted: "There was a large congregation and it included the members of the Coniston Detachment of the 14 th Battalion Lancashire Volunteer Regiment, under Lt Joe Tyson.

"The vicar preached from the text Jehovah Shallum - the Lord send peace.

"Draping the pulpit was a large cross of arum lilies sent by Mrs Barratt, Holgarth."

The most recently notified of the Coniston deaths had been Walter Pepper - who also had links with Carnforth and Whitehaven.

His death was reported in the same Barrow News edition as the village memorial service.

It noted: "Official word has reached the widowed mother, at Coniston, and the wife at Whitehaven, of Pte Walter Pepper, of the Border Regiment, who has died of wounds received on April 23 in France, where he died on the 25th.

"His father was connected with the slate quarrying trade in Borrowdale, Langdale and later Coniston, where Pte Pepper followed the same trade for some years, as well as being in farm service in the Carnforth district.

"He enlisted in the regular army in February, 1913 and for a time was stationed at Barry, Cardiff.

"On the outbreak he was stationed at Barrow with his regiment for some months and went to France in 1916."

The Barrow News on Saturday June 16 in 1917 reported the death of a Nibthwaite soldier, a shock for such a small rural community close to Coniston Water.

Joseph Muncaster had emigrated to Canada - but would be known to every household as the boy who used to bring the post.

It noted: "Much sympathy is felt for Mr and Mrs Muncaster, of High Nibthwaite, who have received official notification that their eldest son Joseph was killed in action on April 28.

"Before joining the forces he was a carpenter in Canada.

"He served his apprenticeship with Mr Walker, of Hawkshead.

"Eight years ago he went to Winnipeg. Later he moved to Calgarry, and when leaving here the workmen of the firm under which he worked presented him with a jewelled gold watch.

"This act speaks for itself and shows that the character he had gained for himself of being a general favourite in the different spheres in which he worked in England he had not lost in Canada.

"For 12 months he acted as a post boy for Blawith.

"His bright and lively disposition, coupled with gentleness and thoughfulness, made him generally beloved.

"In November 1915, he joined the 90th Winnipeg Rifles.

"Before going to France he was transferred to the 8 th Canadian Battalion."

YOU can hear more about the soldiers of the Coniston area in a talk by Evening Mail Memories Page writer Bill Myers called "Cumbria in the First World" at the reading room of Coniston Institute, on Yewdale Road, Coniston, from 2.30pm on Monday, February 20.