BOURNE COMMENT

A personal view of issues
and events

by REX NEEDLE

MISSING HEROES REMEMBERED AFTER 100 YEARS

Remembrance of lives lost in conflict became an integral part of society in the years following the Great War of 1914-18. Memorials sprang up on village greens around the country to those who did not return and the poets who saw service at the front recorded the suffering and privations of a modern warfare then emerging that remain a potent image to this day.

Among them was Laurence Binyon (1869-1943) whose words from his poem For the Fallen are a powerful and compelling reminder of the human suffering and, more importantly, the significance of their sacrifice that should not be forgotten by those back home:

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them 

The first war memorial in Bourne was an extension to the old Butterfield Hospital in North Road, officially opened in 1921, but there is no list of the men who lost their lives although a Roll of Honour was installed on the west wall of the nave in the Abbey Church containing 91 names. The present permanent memorial in South Street was not built until 1956 by which time more lives had been lost in yet another world war.

The project was undertaken by Bourne United Charities using money and land left by local benefactors which enabled the establishment of the War Memorial and Wellhead Gardens.

The central stone structure on a stepped base flanked by two ornamental ponds with fountains was funded mainly by public subscription to a design based on the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, the work of the architects W E Norman Webster and Son, and unveiled and dedicated on Sunday 16th September during a civic service attended by relatives of those named on the memorial.

It is not known exactly how many from Bourne fought in the Great War but with a population of 4,343 at that time (1911 census) it is estimated that the figure was around 250. A public appeal produced the names of 97 men who died in action and their names were subsequently inscribed on the memorial but recent research has revealed that 37 names were missing. The total from Bourne who made the supreme sacrifice was therefore 134 and this omission is to be remedied and the additional names added in time for Remembrance Day in November when the nation honours her war dead.

The work is being carried out by the trustees of Bourne United Charities as part of the World War I centenary celebrations which were observed last year. A veterans’ walk containing 22 memorial stones with accompanying wooden crosses has already been installed in the immediate area of the cenotaph, eleven on either side of the main footpath leading to the monument, each inscribed with the crest of the regiment or arm of service to which those who gave their lives belonged.

The units commemorated in this way include the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, Machine Gun Corps, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Northumberland Fusiliers, Northamptonshire Regiment, Kings Own, Royal Lancaster, Prince of Wales Own, Notts and Derby Regiment, South Staffordshire Regiment, Parachute Regiment, Middlesex Regiment, Hampshire Regiment, Loyal Regiment, Norfolk Regiment, Royal Armoured Corps, Royal Artillery, the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Labour Corps, Royal British Legion, Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

The stone commemorating the Parachute Regiment has a special significance for Bourne because 550 officers and men from the 1st Battalion were stationed in and around the town for several weeks prior to the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944.

The 37 names missing from the list of Great War casualties were identified by local military historian Tony Stubbs following several years of painstaking research into the service records and their names will be inscribed on two slate tablets to be fixed next to each other on the south side of the cenotaph.

There are already 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 but these are better documented.

The plaques containing the additional names from the Great War will be similarly dedicated on Remembrance Sunday this year, November 8th, and although arrangements for the order of service are still to be finalised, it is expected that each will be read out during the service when wreaths will also be in place along the new veteran’s walk for the occasion.

The decision to extend the War Memorial in this way was taken by Bourne United Charities last year as the town’s contribution to the observances across the nation this summer, one hundred years after the outbreak of the war on 4th August 1914. This has also included laying a memorial paving stone on the steps of the cenotaph in May last year to mark the award of the Victoria Cross to local hero Charles Sharpe while serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment during the Battle of Aubers Ridge in France at the age of 26.

Trustee John Kirkman, who has been supervising the work, said that the project of extending the memorial in this way had been a most worthwhile exercise, both through the inclusion of the memorial stones and the addition of the missing names. “This is a most suitable commemoration of the sacrifices made and it is important that our town should remember them”, he said.

Although it has taken almost a hundred years, Bourne will therefore be keeping faith with all of those who gave their lives in battle in accordance with Binyon’s evocative words that have become an integral part of Remembrance Sunday.

Note: This article was published by the Bourne web site on 19th September 2015