By the end of August 1914 over 800 men from the PLA had signed up and by the end of the war this number had risen to nearly 4,000.

Sadly over 400 were killed and over 700 injured during the war.

Amongst the many medals won by PLA employees were two VC's.

At the end of the war two marble tablets were commissioned to bear the names of all the men who fell in the war. These were placed in the head office of the PLA in London.

With the port business being located from the Pool of London to Tilbury these tablets were moved to their current home at the London Cruise Terminal at Tilbury.

A stained glass window was added to commemorate the members of the PLA who died in WW2.

The men from the Essex Regiment listed on the First World War Memorial Tablets are

Pte A L Badkin

Pte J A Barnard

Pte H G Bond

Pte A Brand

Pte J C Brown

Cpl S Burch

L Cpl C A Carter

Pte W C E Connelly

Pte T R Cripps

Pte E Crouch

Pte E W Finch

L Cpl A W Groome 

Pte H Hellen

Pte S J Humphreys

Sgt H J Morrison

Lt H B New

Pte A Prager

CQMS G Smith

Pte H Spurgeon

Pte W H Turner

Pte C A Watts

Pte W J West

Pte J R Wilding

Cpl F C Wing