OBE for Haywards Heath founder of project that secures official recognition for British and Commonwealth war casualties

Terry Denham, of the In From The Cold Project (IFCP), was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to the recognition of British and Commonwealth casualties of the First and Second World Wars.

Terry, who lives in town with his wife, is now retired, but was previously an exhibition organiser and publishing director. He co-founded IFCP in the late 1990s.

Terry said: “I started off doing the work on my own.”

He said he has no military background but became interested in war graves after a trip to Belgium and France. In the mid 1990s he was chairman of Danehill Parish Council and responsible for the village war memorial, which he visited so he could read the names.

He said: “I just wondered where all the guys who were on the war memorial were actually buried so I took a note of their names and looked them up on the Commonwealth War Grave website.”

Terry found one name missing, belonging to a lad from the village. He said: “I thought ‘that can't be right’. If he was a casualty they should have his name on their role of honour.”

Terry tracked the lad down and found that he had left the village before the First World War and joined the Australian army when it broke out. He died in Australia under training.

Terry eventually got his name accepted by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission and then a friend asked him to find another. More requests came in soon after and Terry found about 100. That was when his friend, John Hartley, the co-founder of IFCP, stepped in and told Terry he should carry out the work more systematically.

“Without his nagging at me I may never have got IFCP off the ground,” said Terry, who had started to refer to finding casualties as bringing them ‘in from the cold’.

Terry said he spoke with The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and did research to see if men and women qualify, while John recruited volunteers.

He said: “It just ran away with us and got bigger and bigger and bigger. As of today’s date we’ve found over 8,000 missing casualties. We also find their graves so they can become official legal war graves.”

The IFCP is not just active in the UK. It now has groups in South Africa, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Ireland who report to Terry. He added that 4,000 of those causalities recognised so far are from the Commonwealth. The project is now the biggest finder of these casualties and is treated as a partner of the CWGC. The work is done by Terry and about 50 volunteers around the world.

Terry said he was ‘shocked’ to get the letter about his OBE and emphasised that the work of the project is a team effort. He said: “It’s slightly embarrassing because you know they’ve given you the award and there’s been hundreds of people helping you. You think ‘hang on, I couldn’t have done this without the help of 200 other people’, but they pick you out and you feel honoured.”

Terry said: “Once it was official I made sure I told everyone about it and said ‘this award is for you lot as well. It may have my name on it but it's for all of us’. ‘We did this’, not ‘I did this’.”

Terry said the research can be challenging and involves sifting through service records, pension records, death certificates and other kinds of official documents for evidence for the CWGC that someone qualifies for recognition. It is especially difficult if someone was injured and discharged and then died later of their injuries.

Terry said: “It takes about two years to get a case through. Once the person is accepted then we start our grave finding operation.”

The IFCP is totally self funded and does not ask for donations. Volunteers pay for their own costs while Terry pays for infrastructure costs. But Terry said it is worth it. He said: “These men and women gave their lives – some of them over 100 years ago, some about 70 years ago – in wars in which I’ve never had to fight and I hope my son and grandsons never have to fight. But I think it's important that they are remembered.”

He said: “We do it because we want to do it and we think it's the right thing to do.”