The parish war memorial stands in the churchyard of parish church of St Mary the Virgin in the Cross Green area of Darley Bridge, opposite South Darley School and South Darley Village Hall. It lists the 22 South Darley men who gave their lives fighting in the First World War, with a mortality rate double that of the nation as a whole.
In the book A Derbyshire Parish at Peace and War: South Darley 1925-1955 by Keith Taylor and Trevor Brown (Country Books, 2001), the Introduction describes the dedication of the South Darley war memorial and begins with the following words:
The bell rang out from the tower of St. Mary the Virgin on the afternoon of
Saturday 10th September 1927 as an invitation to the men, women and
children from Wensley, Snitterton, Oker, Cross Green and Darley Bridge to
attend a sad, yet uplifting ceremony.
This book and its predecessor, A Derbyshire Parish at War: South Darley and the Great War 1914-1919 (Taylor, K and Brown, T. Country Books, 2000), chronicle the social and commercial life of the parish over half a century and bring into sharp focus the lives and families of those who fought for their country during this period.
