Here is a picture of the war memorial in the town centre of Welwyn Garden City.
(read my comment beneath picture)
View attachment 55563
So yeah, I always thought this was strange.
"Why" I hear you ask.
<Why, Trev?>
Well, building work in WGC didn't begin until 1920, after Sir Ebenezer Howard had arranged, in 1919, to purchase land to begin his 2nd 'garden city' (after Letchworth). Before that it was all fields around here, except for the main train line north, with the WGC train station not opening until September of 1920.
So these chaps that are remembered on this memorial come from a town that didn't exist during that period.
There are villages in the nearby areas that pre-date WGC, but they are still there and each has it's own memorial.
I have had a look at maps of the time and there are a handful of properties dotted about, but they are remote workers cottages and a couple of pubs on main roads etc, and they would have been included in one of the already established areas such as Digswell, Welwyn (village, to the north-west), Hatfield, etc.