Trinity Methodist Church War Memorial

The search for a name ... If you look closely at the Trinity Methodist Church War Memorial (which is today in the front garden of our Church), you will notice that near the bottom of the list of names there is room to insert another name. The reason for this was deliberate.

The original memorial was in a poor condition and several names were badly worn. After a great deal of photo-taking and discussion, the WW1 group decided that the renovated memorial would have space for the unknown name and that one day someone might trace it and we could then inscribe it in its rightful place. Well surprise, surprise! We found what we believe to be the missing name. We could make out the name Efic Sax ... something, but nothing else. Searches of the War Graves archives showed that there were two E. Saxons who died during the Great War. Who were they and did they have a connection with Frodsham? Of the two names, Ethel Saxon seemed a stronger candidate but we still could not link her with Frodsham.

We knew that her father was a primitive Methodist minister and further research showed the family living in Runcorn during part of his ministry, although the family was living in South Wales prior to the outbreak of war. Recently Territorial Forces records for nurses became available and we obtained a copy of her service records. Normally these are usually 2/3 pages long, however Ethel's ran to 147 pages. It turned out that her father had bombarded the War Office with letters about her effects, missing salary and if they were prepared to erect memorials to the nurses who had been killed/ died during the conflict. Whilst slowly ploughing through all the paperwork, a reference was found to a Mrs E. Thornton of Frodsham as being where all the mail should be directed. Further searching established that she was Ethel's aunt whose husband owned the motorcycle works opposite the church and that they lived in the large Edwardian house next to Trinity church, Deyne Court. When Ethel was sent to work as a nurse she was sent to Liverpool and not Cardiff wherever she lived. Coincidence?

​Without going into further details, we now firmly believe that Ethel Saxon is the name we have been searching for and we are going ahead with arranging for a stone mason to inscribe her name.

​Now does anyone know who Alan Stevenson was?