Different or Unusual Headstones/Memorials /Inscriptions

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by spidge, Dec 10, 2008.

  1. BereniceUK

    BereniceUK Well-Known Member

    James Carter Spensley M.A. Died in his country's service at H.M. Munitions Factory, Gretna, Scotland, on 16th December 1918, aged 32. Son of Mary Ann Spensley. World War One: HM Factory Gretna's vital munitions role - BBC News Buried at Gunnerside Wesleyan Methodist Church, North Yorkshire.

    "In 'Swaledale & Wharfedale Remembered' author Keith Taylor includes a page of information on the life and death of James Carter Spensley, MA, AIC, FCS, Research Chemist at the Government Munitions Factory, Gretna.

    James' father, John Joseph Spensley was head teacher at Gunnerside school and married Mary Ann Woodward. James was born at Gunnerside and the family emigrated to South Africa in the late 1890s. James became a professor and lecturer in chemistry at the University of Pretoria but returned to England in May 1917.

    After an accident involving the production of chemicals for warfare in 1918 James became very ill, recovered and then died, aged 32 years."

    I can't give a link for the above info, as the link I do have for it no longer works.

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    Last edited: Jun 26, 2017
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  2. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    GRIFFITH, EDWARD WILLIAM COLLISSON
    Rank: Captain
    Date of Death: 01/02/1919
    Regiment/Service: Royal Irish Rifles 10th Bn.
    Grave Reference: Eastern. I. 62.
    Cemetery: Lewes Cemetery, Lewes, East Sussex

    Griffith_EWC 01.JPG
    Casualty details

    Also in memory of his brother in law:

    INNOCENT, EDWARD JOHN
    Rank: Lieutenant
    Date of Death: 03/07/1916
    Regiment/Service: Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 9th Bn.
    Grave Reference: VIII. T. 9.
    Cemetery: DANTZIG ALLEY BRITISH CEMETERY, MAMETZ
    Casualty details
     
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  3. hucks216

    hucks216 Member

    Memorial stone to officers of the French Section SOE who were executed at Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp in Autumn 1944. The memorial can be seen at the far left of the first image which shows part of the execution area of the camp.

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  4. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Rather strange a piece of house brick and dead evergreen branch placed on all the CWGC graves in Harrow cemetery.
    I know the practice of leaving a pebble on Jewish war graves but not seen this before.



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  5. Deacs

    Deacs Well i am from Cumbria.

    A unusual headstone in Rampside (St. Michael) Churchyard.

    It is in the shape of a CWGC headstone but was erected by his comrades.

    For a
    Trooper George BOOTH
    5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
    Who died at Warminster Camp
    1st May 1934
    Aged 18 years
    Erected by His Comrades.

    I took this in September 2019 and sadly it is eroding quite badly.
    Picture3.jpg


    The picture of the headstone in the link below is a lot better.
    Booth, George - Furness Stories Behind the Stones

    The Barrow News 12 May 1934 reported the death of Trooper Booth:


    Late George Booth.
    We regret to record the death of George Booth, aged 18 years, of Concle-terrace, Rampside, which took place under tragic circumstances. Whilst in camp at Warminster with his regiment, the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, Booth met with an accident, the trigger of his rifle catching a twig discharging the missile while he was out range shooting. Death was instantaneous. Deceased was playing football on the evening prior to the accident. The captain of the regiment stated that he bore an excellent character and was quite happy. Deepest sympathy is felt for Mr. and Mrs. Booth, and Eileen. Raymond, a brother, is an A.B. in the Royal Navy stationed at Bermuda.
     
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  6. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Not military but very unusual
    Aldenham Herts

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  7. Deacs

    Deacs Well i am from Cumbria.

    A Chinese Sailor’s Grave in Barrow Cemetery
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    Details of burial of Chinese sailor Mr. A-dong Zhang died Barrow 1912 on the ship The Hai Chi.

    Chinese Sailor: Chang Ho Tong - Furness Stories Behind the Stones

    Initially I was not certain whether it had Chinese or Japanese script. Ships for both Chinese (The Ying Swei launched December 1911 [Source 1 2]) and Japanese (The Kongō launched May 1912 [Source]) navies were being built by Messrs Vickers Ltd. in Barrow Shipyard in 1911/12. The embassies of each country responded to my request for assistance, confirming that it was the grave of a Chinese sailor. However, Mr Zhao Lei, First Secretary and Consul at the Chinese Embassy (2012), helpfully said that the grave was of a sailor on the Chinese ship Hai Chi [Source]. The Hai Chi had arrived in Portsmouth on 24 April 1911 to celebrate the Coronation of the new king (King George V); went to the US in July, returning to the UK in September. Its crew were assisting in the training of the crew of the Ying Swei.


    Mr Zhao said that it was the grave of Mr. A-dong Zhang (张阿东), born in Zhen-hai County (镇海县), Zhejiang Province(浙江省) China. This is a coastal town near the city of Ningbo. The name in the following account is anglicised in a different way: conventions have changed in the last hundred years.




    Details from Wikipedia on the ship The Hai Chi.

    Chinese cruiser Hai Chi - Wikipedia.

    Hai Chi was built in 1897 by Armstrong Whitworth in Newcastle upon Tyne.[2]

    In 1911, Hai Chi visited the United Kingdom to participate in the fleet review held to mark George V's coronation. It also visited Newcastle for an electrical refitting at Armstrong Whitworth. Due to the occurrence of the Torreón massacre in Mexico, its mission was extended to include a visit to the United States, Cuba and Mexico. On 11 September 1911, she was the first Imperial Chinese Navy vessel in American waters.[2][3][4][5] While the ship was in Cuba, Mexico agreed to Chinese demands for reparations and action against the rebels, and the last leg of the ship's mission was cancelled. Hai Chi sailed home and arrived to a new government, the Republic of China having replaced the Qing empire while the ship was away.

    Hai Chi served in the Republic of China Navy thereafter. In 1917 it was part of the fleet which joined Sun Yat-sen's Constitutional Protection Movement against the Beijing government. In 1923 it returned to the north, but in 1926 joined the Fengtian faction of Zhang Zuolin, in Manchuria. After the loss of Manchuria to Japan in the Mukden Incident in 1931, Hai Chi moved to Qingdao along with the rest of the Fengtian navy and became part of the ROC Navy's 3rd Fleet. In 1933, due to a dispute with the fleet commander over pay and expenses,[citation needed] Hai Chi along with two ships travelled south and joined the Guangdong navy. In 1935, due to a dispute with the governor of Guangdong province, Hai Chi together with another ship fought its way past a blockade to reach Hong Kong, and eventually to the capital Nanjing, where (as a compromise) they were nominally returned to the Third Fleet, but in reality came under the direct command of the ministry of defence.[citation needed]

    The ship was scuttled as a blockship in the Yangtze River on 11 August 1937[6][7] to obstruct the Japanese advance in the Second Sino-Japanese War.[1] Her main guns were dismantled before she was scuttled and installed in the river defences of Wuhan


     
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  8. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

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    CORPORAL S J TILLETT
    Service Number: 13975
    Regiment & Unit/Ship
    Army Pay Corps

    Date of Death
    Died 07 November 1918

    Age 37 years old

    Buried or commemorated at
    LUDLOW OLD CEMETERY

    South-West of Church.

    United Kingdom



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  9. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

  10. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Kingsland cemetery Herefordshire

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  11. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

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    This large - but self explanatory and certainly not run-of-the-mill - memorial stands in the grounds of St Helens Church, Boultham Park, Lincoln. It is a stone from the Sevastopol city walls, imprinted with a shell burst and in front of which sit two hollowed out mortar shells, part of one visible bottom left.

    Ellison came from a noted Lincoln family, although his 47th Regiment - otherwise the 47th (Lancashire) Regiment of Foot - hailed largely from elsewhere, so perhaps strange to remember them here. That said, under the Cardwell (then Childers) reforms effected in 1881, it would subsequently merge with the 81st Regiment (Loyal Lincoln Volunteers) to become the Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), assigned to Fulwood Barracks, Preston.

    There are 4 nearby CWGC graves.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2023
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  12. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

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  13. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    What an amazing story about Thomas Brown. It's fascinating to read the background to the Battle of Dettingen and how brave this man was.
    Thank you for posting.

    Lesley
     
  14. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Four ancient headstones made into benches

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  15. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    Very imaginative and preserves a degree of remembrance. That type of stone is prone to frost spalling and splitting, but they seem to be in above average order.

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    Here’s another ‘stray’, recycled and preserved within a church wall (All Saints’ Preston, East Yorks). It is difficult to read, but goes “Here Lieth the beloved George Wetherill of Hull ….. who had the misfortune to be killed by a bull ….1788”

    I’m not sure whether rhyme was intended, but as an octogenarian, I wonder what he was doing messing around with such a beast. He has, of course, no connection with WW2, but I’m reasonably certain that he was the father-in-law of William Todd, onetime corporal in His Majesty’s Infantry and accredited originator of the Corporals’ Mess, which carries forward. Still looking for his grave in Sculcoates’ burial ground, but unlikely to have ever had a headstone.
     
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  16. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    "Ernest sydney Eggleston, 23, Dorothy Avenue, Melton Mowbray, a member of the Leicesterdhire yeomanry, was killed on the Oakham - Melton Road, just outside Burton Lazars, when his motor-cycle was in collision with another coming from the direction of Oakham". (Illustrated Leicester Chronicle, October 21st. 1939)
     
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  17. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Not often seen a photograph of the casualty tiled into the headstone


    PRIVATE THOMAS JAMES FOX
    Service Number: 14880449
    Regiment & Unit/Ship
    The Parachute Regiment, A.A.C.

    5th Bn.

    Date of Death
    Died 01 December 1947

    Age 21 years old

    Buried or commemorated at
    CITY OF LONDON AND TOWER HAMLETS CEMETERY

    Screen Wall. Sec. R. Grave 5266.

    United Kingdom
    • Country of Service United Kingdom
    • Additional Info Son of Thomas Joseph and Elizabeth Fox, of Stepney.

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