A number of days ago I mentioned three graves in St Remigius Churchyard for soldiers killed in the Second World War but who are not commemorated on the village war memorial. I set out to do some research into those names and then widened it to take in the First World War.
As a result I have extended my list of men who may have been killed in the wars but whose names do not appear on the village memorial.
A few years ago we had the name of Norman Folkard added to the war memorial. He died in the Cyprus campaign in 1956. We are a long way from achieving that with the latest batch of names but it is something I will be doing more research on. I would love to hear from anyone who has any memories of those listed below or their families or who are descended from them.
So to start with I will list what I have been able to find out about the three men who died during the Second World War and who have commemorative military headstones in St Remigius.
Lieutenant 121408 John Gifford-Brown served with the Royal Army Service Corps and died on 19th September, 1940.
Corporal 1437869 Charles Edwards Holmes died on 14th April, 1943, aged 33. He was a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was the son of Alfred and Gertrude Holmes and husband of Myrtle Holmes of Hethersett. I have also found a reference to a death in the "Epping Forest District 1943" and so possibly he didn't die on active service, although the fact he has a commemorative military headstone would suggest otherwise.
Driver Ronald Thomas Parry of the Royal Army Service Corps died on 15th December, 1944, aged 26. He was the son of Thomas and Ellen Parry and husband of Winifred Vera Parry of Hethersett.
Now I have come across a number of other names from the Second World War that need investigating. These are Percy Back, Hugh Salter and Douglas Sanderson.
Then from the First World War we have Benjamin Barker, John Barrett, Bertie George and James Mortar.
The photographs at the top of this blog are taken from the commonwealth war graves commission and show some of the relevant images. Click on them to enlarge.
I will be back later today with some more "down memory lane" reminiscences.