Welcome to Dispatches, a shorter podcast from the Old Frontline and me, military historian Paul Reed.

In this episode of Dispatches, we'll look at the dead man's penny, the bronze memorial plaque that was produced to commemorate the fallen of the Great War,

and we'll ask how it connects us to the battlefields of that conflict.

A century ago the houses were the families of fallen men and women

who had died in the Great War while serving

with British and Commonwealth forces lived, were receiving packages from organisations like the

War Office or the Admiralty, sending them the campaign medals of their loved ones.

Following a decision by the British government, these medals were also to be

accompanied by the issue of a bronze memorial plaque, often called the death plaque, or the dead

man's penny, or even the widow's penny, because of its design resembling an old brown penny,

although much bigger.

Officially, this bronze plaque, which easily filled your hand, was known as the next-of-kin

memorial plaque.

Around its edge was the legend, he died for freedom and honour. in the case of women she died for freedom and honour

a box was cast onto the plaque and that contained the name of the casualty that that bronze plaque commemorated

civil rank like a title, like Lord or Sir, was included

within that, but no military rank. There was no military distinction at all within the naming of

these plaques. Plaques of officers were identical to plaques to ordinary men.

And that was, I think, an important aspect of the way those casualties of the Great War

were commemorated with these plaques.

Because each plaque represented a life lost in that Great War, creating a unique way of memorialising

that generation who had fallen. A government committee was established in October 1916 to look at

...