A TEAM of researchers are busy uncovering the stories of 23 First World War soldiers whose names are commemorated in Bournemouth’s civic church.

St Peter’s Church won Heritage Lottery Fund backing for its project Stone and Voice, which combines local history, art and education.

The project will tell the story of the Chapel of the Resurrection, which was built in the grounds of St Peter's after the Great War, as well as the fallen who are commemorated in the church.

The lottery funding has allowed the appointment of a professional coordinator, Alice Miller.

She said: “I’m interested in World War One. We initiated research at my own church, All Saints in Southbourne. We found the stories of 41 out of the 42 men on the World War One memorial and we had a very large exhibition around Remembrance Sunday, 2014.

“Only the men’s surnames were on there initially, so their Christian names were read in church for the first time since they died, and their Christian names are now read every Remembrance Day.”

The stories of the fallen men will be explored through a schools programme, performance and exhibition, as well as events and workshops open to all.

Rod Arnold, vice-chairman of the Wessex branch of the Western Front Association, is among the researchers.

He said: “What we’ve been doing as a group is looking at their family background. We have a name and a date they served with a particular unit. We’ve been looking at who were they, where they lived.”

Alice added: “There’s a story for each and every man.”

Among the topics the team are keen to find out about is St Peter’s School – unconnected with the modern school of the same name in Southbourne. It stood next to the church, on the site where Maples furniture store was later built.

The church’s war memorial mentions the “scholars of St Peter’s schools” who died in the First World War, but the school’s records seem to have been lost after it was demolished in 1937.

Anyone with information should email stoneandvoice@gmail.com or contact the St Peter's parish office on 01202 290986.

The names on the memorial in St Peter’s are: John Luxton Ash, Hubert Drewe Bishop, Stanley Burn, Robert Bygrave, Cyril Henry Cooper, Donald Roy Drysdale, Richard Dunn-Pattison, Wilfred Brown Dent, Oscar John Evenson, Harry Gooding (possibly christened Henry), Rob Henry Geelan, Henry Longbottom, Robert Longbottom, Walter Matthew MacDonald, Charles Martin, George Martin, Frederick Moore, Walter Tessie Newlyn, Brian Brooke New, Ernest Newton, Percy George Thick, Alfred Siebert, Henry Frederick Trigg.