IT’S a Hampshire war memorial with a difference – honouring local men who fought in the First World War and SURVIVED.

The heavy losses were felt in nearly every town and parish as shown by war memorials in churchyards and village greens.

But the names of 20 locals who came back from the battlefields are carved alongside seven fallen soldiers on a brass plaque in St Michael and All Angels Church in Bullington, a hamlet north of Winchester.

Rev Karen Kousseff, Anglican curate of Lower Dever Benefice, said: “The war memorial is very unusual because it records the names of men who came back to tell the tale.

“They survived the horrors of the First World War and many would have gone back to their farm jobs.

“While it is completely right to remember those who lost their lives – and that is what Remembrance Sunday is all about – we can overlook those who lived with the pain and horror of what they witnessed.

“They had psychological scars and many would have had physical scars too.”

A wreath of poppies will be laid beneath the plaque and all the names read out at a Remembrance Day service this Sunday at nearby Barton Stacey church, starting at 10.50am.

Mrs Kousseff said she would preach about the courage and sacrifice of all those who served their country in the First World War and whose lives were blown apart.

She said: “It was not just individuals who were scarred but families and whole communities.”

Those killed include Rowland Allen, 27, awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and his younger brother Cecil, who was just 17 when he died.

The list of survivors include two men with the same surname, believed to be their brothers.

In 1911, Bullington had just 30 households.

The south remembers: For a list of remembrance services across the region click here