EACH YEAR on Remembrance Day, the country remembers those who lost their lives in conflict. This day marks the Armistice of the First World War which took place at 11 am on the 11th November 1918 and is better known as Poppy Day, a potent reminder of those who left their homes and their loved ones to fight for their country. 

The tradition of remembering began in the years that followed when towns and villages erected a permanent monument and it is here that communities gather to pay homage to those who did not return after four years of fighting. 

The first such memorial in Bourne was an extension to the Butterfield Hospital in North Road erected in 1921, followed by a Roll of Honour in the nave of the Abbey Church. One veteran, Richard Pattison (1879-1959), who survived his service with the Royal Flying Corps, was a talented musician and for many years sounded the last post on his bugle from the market place on each Remembrance Day. 

But soon there was a demand for a permanent place to hold this annual observance and the opportunity came after Bourne United Charities bought land from the Marquess of Exeter with money provided by local benefactors and public subscriptions and created the Wellhead Gardens in South Street with sufficient space for a stone monument in landscaped surroundings, known today as the War Memorial Gardens. 

The design of the monument was based on the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, the work of the architects W E Norman Webster and Son, and was unveiled and dedicated on Sunday 16th September 1956 during a civic service attended by relatives of those named on the memorial and many ex-servicemen and women while the band of the 4th/6th Battalion of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment (TA) provided the music as wreaths were placed at the base of the cenotaph, the first by Councillor Leslie Day, chairman of Bourne Urban District Council, followed by other civic and army leaders (pictured above) before the sounding of Retreat. 

There are two plaques on the monument containing the names of those from Bourne who fell in battle. One on the south side lists those who lost their lives in the First World War and that on the north side contains the names of those who died in the Second World War of 1939-45 and subsequent conflicts in other parts of the world.  

It is not recorded how many men left the town to join the armed forces during the First World War but it is known that 97 men lost their lives and their names are inscribed there although there have been suggestions that the figure is nearer 140 and that 40 names are therefore missing. The memorial also includes the names of 32 men who did not return from the Second World War and a further three who died on active service before the century ended.  

The first man named on the memorial from the Great War is Harry Allen, an infantryman serving with the Royal Warwickshire Regiment who was killed in France in 1916. He was the son of Albert and Frances Allen, of Meadowgate, Bourne and was mortally wounded during a trench raid while his battalion was dug in at the notorious Ploegstert Woods sector in France, universally known to the troops as "Plugstreet". Captain Robert Graves, of the Royal Welch Regiment, who later became one of the Great War's celebrated poets, was severely wounded in another action there about the same time. 

The last name of the last soldier who died in the Great War to be added to the Roll of Honour is that of George Coverley. He had been overlooked when the monument was built and approaches from his relatives to remedy the omission were refused. The case was taken up by the Royal British Legion and his name was added to the memorial at a special service on VE Day 8th May 8th 1995 together with those of three servicemen who had died in more recent wars. 

Private George Coverley of the Labour Corps died on 16th December 1918 as a result of war wounds. He was aged 35 years and it is said that he died in a military hospital in Scotland and his body was brought to Bourne for burial in the cemetery. George Coverley's brother kept the New Inn on the Spalding Road which is now a private residence.  

When the war ended, many grieving parents refused to believe that missing sons were dead and continued seeking information about them through public notices in the newspapers. A poignant example of this which reflects the heartache of war for those at home appeared in a local newspaper on Friday 24th January 1919: "Private George Hare, No 140820, of A Company, 34th Machine Gun Company, was taken prisoner on 10th April 1918. Nothing has been heard of him since July 25th last. If anyone can give any information it will be gladly welcomed by his parents at 26, Hereward-street, Bourne." 

There was no news and the name of G Hare appears on the War Memorial. 

Four of our war dead are buried together in the town cemetery with headstones provided by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They are Private R J Sayer of the Lincolnshire Regiment, killed on 26th October 1940, aged 19, Lance Corporal D Milner of the Loyal Regiment, killed on 3rd October 1941, aged 21, Sergeant J R Everett of the Parachute Regiment Army Air Corps, killed 13th March 1944, aged 34, and Sapper C E Michelson, Royal Engineers, killed 9th November 1944, aged 29. The last headstone is a particularly poignant one because it also contains a memorial inscription to Private W S Michelson, killed during the First World War in Belgium on 7th October 1917, aged 35, and so successive wars claimed both father and son. 

Remembrance Sunday is now held on the second Sunday in November when communities across the land gather to remember those who made the sacrifice and here in Bourne, the War Memorial in South Street will be the central point for this ceremony next weekend.