ABSTRACT
In the spring and summer of 1921 in many rural areas they were still finishing the memorials to the Glorious Dead. Most of them carried the names of the local squire or squire’s son. More of these found their names on private memorials. In Chester Cathedral there is a monument to thirteen members of the Grey-Egerton family of Oulton Park who fell on active service. Although this scale of family tragedy was rare the rural elite suffered terrible casualties. As David Cannadine writes:1
The British aristocracy was irrevocably weakened by the impact of the First World War. Not since the Wars of the Roses had so many patricians died so suddenly and so violently. And their losses were, proportionately, far greater than those of any other social group. . . . Of the British and Irish peers and their sons who served during the war one in five was killed. But the comparable figure for all members of the fighting services was one in eight.
