FOR the past 100 years the only war memorial at Studland was the plaque at St Nicholas Church - but now that has all changed.

A £10,000 memorial and remembrance garden, located near the 'Kissing Gate' at the Studland church, will be officially dedicated on Remembrance Sunday by the Right Reverend Karen Gorham, Bishop of Sherborne.

Among the names on this new memorial will be those of six Brownsea Island men who died in the Great War.

These men are Alfred James Christian Biggs, Robert Martin Biggs, Ernest Frederick Dean, Joseph Thomas Dean, Herbert John Stickland and John Tizzard.

In 1918 Brownsea Island was still part of the parish of Studland, and although the six names appear in the church on Brownsea, this is the first time they'll have appeared on any mainland memorial, it is understood.

St Nicholas' Rev Tony Higgins said: "There has been further historical interest from St Paul's Way Trust School, Tower Hamlets, London, who have been researching Lt. Gurdon Thomasset, a young officer aged 20 who died at the battle of Loos in 1915."

There is a memorial plaque at St Nicholas Church in Lt Thomasset's memory, but the reason why remains unclear.

"A group of students from St Paul's Way came to visit the church and remembrance garden during the summer, " said Rev Higgins. "Ten students and their teachers will also attend the Remembrance Day service this year."

Last year pupils from the London school travelled to the war grave of Lt Thomasset in Loos cemetery, France, where they laid a wreath.

Rev Higgins said: "Lt Thomasset was a member of the London Rifles and grew up in the area now known as Tower Hamlets, where the school is located.

"The reason that there is a memorial plaque in his memory in St Nicholas church remains a mystery, but research continues into the origin of the memorial."