We can't remember exactly when we first heard the term "The Thankful Villages" but whenever it was, we also learned what a Thankful Village was, although we only had vague definitions at the time. The phrase was first used by Arthur Mee in his King's England series in the 1930s. A Thankful Village, it was said, was one which lost no men in the Great War because all those who left to serve came home again. For example, in Yorkshire East Riding he says about Catwick, "Thirty men went from Catwick to the Great War and thirty came back, though one left an arm behind." It was also said that such villages have no war memorials - or that if they do, they are a thankful reminder of all who served. Any community which enjoyed this rare distinction must have been Thankful indeed, in an age when family and community life broken by war was the norm. http://www.fylde.demon.co.uk/thankful.htm
