Courtesy of St Margaret’s History Society: St Margaret’s in the First World War
St Margaret’s in the First World War
With the frontline only a few miles away across the channel, most of the villagers of St Margaret’s were involved with the First World War effort in some way. Residents could hear distant gunfire from the French battlefields and watch sea battles from the cliffs. The village was surrounded by small military airfields and its roads were full of soldiers.
Thirty-one of the one hundred and fifty three local men who joined up lost their lives, including a Victoria Cross winner, Lt Col Christopher Bushell and Australia’s top WW1 air ace, Captain Alec Little.
The last bomb to fall on Britain fell in this parish, and after the war the village became home not only to a local war memorial in the church but also to the impressive Dover Patrol Memorial on the cliffs.
Text by Christine Waterman