<p>TODAY all that remains of their sacrifice is a list of names on three Oxfordshire war memorials. But the painstaking efforts of one amateur historian have now unveiled the human tragedies behind the stone etchings.</p><p>Four years ago Jeff Clements started trying to uncover the stories behind the names on the West Oxfordshire war memorials in Witney, Crawley and Hailey. His research has uncovered 160 individual biographies, starting with the story of labourer Harry Hooper, the first Witney man to die in the First World War killed in an artillery barrage in the trenches.</p><p>He was inspired by a trip to the battlefields of Belgium and northern France. The 44-year-old prison officer at HMP Grendon, who was raised in Witney but now lives in Carterton, started work on his book in 2009. A year later he put an appeal in the Oxford Mail to help with his research, which he said "sparked a flurry of activity".</p><p>Mr Clements said: "I would spend three or four hours a day trawling through the old Witney Gazettes in the library and transcribed every mention on the war memorial from 1914-1921. "I tied that in with information from the internet and books.</p><p><a href="http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10385223.Lives_of_heroes_named_on_war_memorials_revealed/?ref=nt">Keep reading...</a></p>