Can you photograph your local war memorial? (UK)

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by dbf, Nov 22, 2009.

  1. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    ST ALBANS SCHOOL War Memorial
     

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  2. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    Henley On Thames
     

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  3. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    Stratford Upon Avon First World War Memorial

    ST a.jpg
     

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  4. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    King Edward School Stratford Upon Avon
     

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  5. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    Stratford Upon Avon WW2 Memorial

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  6. JimHerriot

    JimHerriot Ready for Anything

    "At the going down of the sun.........."

    TWM At The Going Down of The Sun.jpg

    Last day pre-lockdown No.2, dusted off the railcard and visited an old buddy in Taunton, Somerset. I'd attended the Taunton War Memorial (in Vivary Park) in the past, but never previously photographed it, so here they are, along with The Normandy Stone memorial within the same park, followed by the final words of Eric Cambell-White from his privately published booklet of November 1945;

    "MOODS FOR A MEDAL (France and Germany Star)"

    Always remember, never forget,

    Jim.

    TWM North facing side.jpg

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    TWM West facing side Burma Star Plaque.jpg

    TWM Normandy Stone.jpg

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    Last edited: Nov 6, 2020
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  7. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Can’t remember coming across an airman silhouette before, Duncton Hill, West Sussex:
    Duncton Hill 01 - Copy.JPG

    Duncton Hill
     
  8. The Cooler King

    The Cooler King Elite Member

    St.Andrews Church, Soham, Cambridgeshire
     

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  9. jamesmurrow

    jamesmurrow Senior Member

    Chorley, Lancashire. 'Pals' Memorial
     

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  10. Little Friend

    Little Friend Senior Member

    There was one at Brize Norton, also Halton.
     
  11. jamesmurrow

    jamesmurrow Senior Member

    Chorley War Memorial, Lancashire
     

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  12. jamesmurrow

    jamesmurrow Senior Member

    Skelmersdale, 'Old Town' War Memorial, Merseyside
     

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  13. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Thanks James. One of my Chindit 1 casualties is on the Chorley War Memorial. John Bromley who died in Burma and is also remembered upon the Rangoon Memorial:

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  14. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member


    The churchyard of St Peter’s, Bishop Norton, Lincolnshire contains two War Graves, both WW2:
    upload_2021-4-6_15-25-2.jpeg
    with the Parish War Memorial - the lychgate - visible just above and left of Gdsmn CW Rhyder’s headstone. In the lychgate are two memorial slabs, one carrying the name of Gdsmn Rhyder again, with that of another villager, Alec Beat, killed in Op GOODWOOD:
    upload_2021-4-6_15-29-46.jpeg
    with another slab for the Great War:
    upload_2021-4-6_15-31-41.jpeg
    remembering, amongst others, another Grenadier, Capt Sir Montague Cholmeley, killed by a sniper on Christmas Eve 1914 and who, with no known grave, is named on the memorial at Le Touret in the Pas de Calais.

    Charles Rhyder’s parents are buried close to their son. Gunner Paul Graham was not a villager, but may have died at one of several nearby wartime RAF stations.

    If anyone has any more details on the above, I will pass them to the Churchwarden. He advised that the WW2 memorial slab will be replaced in a few years time, just before the weathering on the names renders them illegible.

    Afternote: Twenty-two year old Gunner Paul Graham died in a house fire tragedy. He was on a 48 hour leave pass, staying with friends at a farm in nearby Spital in the Street. A young farm worker, alerted by a barking dog, gained entry to the house to raise the alarm. He found the living room ablaze and went upstairs, rescuing teenager Audrey Drayton, although she died within the hour. Others escaped by exiting windows, including Paul Graham, but he had already been badly burned and died in the early morning. Audrey Drayton is in an adjacent grave. Paul Graham's headstone has recently been replaced by the CWGC.

    As an aside, a lychgate is an apt memorial (even though they are perhaps more associated with wedding photographs nowadays) because lych was the Saxon word for corpse; so a lychgate was originally associated with the dead. Medieval funeral services began at the boundary of the churchyard, with the priest meeting the cortege there and conducting initial rites before the deceased was brought onto consecrated ground. A form of shelter was needed, so from about 1400 AD, lychgates were built for this purpose. This one was erected in 1922. A variation of lych is lyke, which readers who have tabbed the Lykewake Walk may be familiar with.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2024
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  15. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    The parish just North of Bishop Norton (#1916) is Snitterby, with its war memorial also in the churchyard:
    upload_2021-4-8_19-36-43.jpeg

    This only commemorates the fallen from the Great War. dbf may wish to note Albert Ashley was a Coldstream Guardsman and additional details are at:
    Roll of Honour - Lincolnshire - Snitterby

    This also reflects that there are no names for WW2 fatalities from the village, perchance local serendipity. Sadly, that was not the case, as may be seen from the details at:
    Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire.

    which after a brief account of a difficult previous mission, covers the nearby crash of a stricken outbound 51 Squadron Halifax bomber, leading to the tragic deaths of a civilian lady, her baby son and a crew member. Additional details of the circumstances are set out in an entry for 10 August 1943 at:
    1943 Lincolnshire aviation Incident Logs. - BCAR.org.uk
    extracted and slightly expanded below:

    Airborne 2140hrs 10 August 1943 from Snaith for Nuremburg. Crashed 2210hrs into a building at Snitterby Cliff Farm (just West of the village of Snitterby, Lincolnshire beside the lane leading to the A15). The aircraft was unable to retract the undercarriage or flaps due to a hydraulic system failure immediately after takeoff and the starboard outer constant speed unit failed in flight shortly afterwards. The pilot attempted to crash-land the aircraft, but it swung into an isolated farmhouse and caught fire. This in turn set the dwelling ablaze, killing two civilians who lived there - Mrs Olive Dickinson (38) and her baby son John (15 weeks). W/Op P/O Cyril Albert Henry Silvester RAFVR (148478) of Clacton, Essex was killed in the incident, with his crewmates all suffering varying degrees of injury, although rear gunner P/O William Ralph Clow RCAF (J/14011) was still able to help them to safety.

    I wondered initially why Mrs Dickinson and her baby were interred another village, Glentworth, about 4 miles away, rather than the nearby Snitterby parish churchyard. Apparently, Glentworth was the village where she had grown up and such was the rawness of local feeling at the time that it was decided to do so for the best. So whilst they not commemorated on the local war memorial, they are remembered by the CWGC at:
    Search Results | CWGC

    and are not forgotten, as may be educed from:
    Plane crash- Snitterby, Licolnshire 10/08/1943
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2021
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  16. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    Interestingly the Cooks are a large family in Bishop Norton and the Church Warden will know them.

    The fathers, sons and cousins in recent times were always active in local football and cricket. For the Bishop Norton cricket team it was not unusual that the family could field a team of almost all Cooks.

    The No 51 Squadron crash at Snitterby Cliff Farm is well known and was described to me by a late friend who lived locally at the time of the crash. As far as I know there is no memorial there which as said is adjacent to the A15 not far from the F.C. grass airfield at Kirton Lindsey. The squadron lost two aircraft on this op, the other over Germany.

    The Royal Oak pub at Snitterby as I remember was a watering hole for airmen based at Hemswell. To get to it from the village road was to navigate across an open stream. Beer was served from barrels in those days. Since those far off days, a small bridge over the stream has been erected serving pedestrians and motorists alike.
     
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  17. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    The Royal Oak (#1918 above) is indeed being readied for a resumption of roofless refreshment retailing, which would hearten its former wartime customers.

    The village just North of Snitterby is Waddingham. Bizarrely, until a couple of years ago, the Waddingham village sign used to stand beside the stream, beside The Royal Oak in the heart of Snitterby - now sensibly relocated. Whichever, the Waddingham War Memorial in the village churchyard is pictured below:
    upload_2021-4-9_16-52-8.jpeg
    and some details of those commemorated, with more images, are at:
    Roll of Honour - Lincolnshire - Waddingham

    One of those remembered - Dennis Churchill - was another lost whilst serving (as a mid upper gunner) with 51 Sqn RAF - connect my post of the nearby coincidental tragedy at #1917. Herewith some detail of his final mission:

    On 31 March 1944, 51 Sqn RAF Halifax Mk 3 MH-V (LW579) was returning from an operation against Nuremberg when it crashed at Cowleaze Wood near Aston Rowant in Oxfordshire killing all seven crew. LW579 was based at RAF Snaith in the East Riding of Yorkshire and pilot P/O J Brooks seems to have been trying to make an emergency landing at RAF Benson, some 120 miles (190 km) from its home station.

    The reason for the emergency landing is not known. Witnesses seemingly reported engines running and wheels down as it was making its approach and also that cloud was low enough to enshroud the unfamiliar wooded hill. The undercarriage is attributed to have caught the treetops and the aircraft then exploded as it hit the ground (Failed to Return, Bill Norman).

    It was a very costly night for 51 Sqn - six aircraft lost on the same mission; 35 aircrew dead, with 7 surviving, albeit as PW.

    There is a monument in the wood to the crew of LW579 - a stone plinth from Lincoln Cathedral, now inscribed with the mens’ names. It was unveiled on 31 March 1994, the 50th anniversary of the crash, following the efforts of F/Sgt Dennis Churchill’s son and F/Sgt George West’s nephew:
    Halifax LW579 51 Squadron RAF

    A feature about the crash, the crew and some of their surviving relatives was reportedly broadcast by BBC Radio Oxford in 2015.
     
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  18. CL1

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

    Northaw War Memorial ,Hertfordshire.

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  19. jamesmurrow

    jamesmurrow Senior Member

    Caernarfon War Memorial
     

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  20. CL1

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

    Pensax and Stockton on Teme War Memorial,Worcestershire.

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