The War Memorial

The War Memorial

Photographed in 2009

A total of 170 servicemen are remembered here:
World War One - 135
World War Two - 32
Other conflicts - 3

The two World Wars are remembered alongside the Bourne Eau by a war memorial and a Garden of Remembrance which were opened in 1956. The design of the memorial was based on the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and is the work of the architects W E Norman Webster and Son who once had offices in North Street. It is not recorded how many men left the town to join the armed forces during the Great War of 1914-18 and the names of the 135 men who died are inscribed on the stone cenotaph.

There were 97 names inscribed here when the cenotaph was erected but later research by local historian Tony Stubbs discovered that 37 names had been omitted and these were added on a separate plaque in 2014 to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the war together with another name which was added in 2016, making a total of 38.

The memorial also includes the names of 32 men who did not return from the conflict of 1939-45 and a further three who died on active service before the century ended. During the Second World War, many men also volunteered for service with the Home Guard which raised a total force of 1,600 from the town and district.

The horrors of war came home to Bourne on two occasions, once when bombs were dropped on the southern and western edges of the town and the other when an enemy aircraft crashed on the Butcher’s Arms in Eastgate, killing seven people, some of them soldiers billeted at the inn.

Photographed in November 2005

Lest we forget: poppy wreaths at the war memorial after Remembrance Day 2005.

The first casualty of the Great War from Bourne was Sgt Arthur Bates who was serving with the 1st Battalion, the Lincolnshire Regiment. He was a regular soldier who had already been in action during the Boer War and was subsequently posted to India, returning home in 1913 to visit his sister, Mrs Albert Scotney, who lived in North Street. At the outbreak of the war in 1914, he was sent to France, arriving with his battalion on August 17th and was killed in action at Mons a week later, on August 24th. He was 33 years old and is buried in Frameries Communal Cemetery in a suburb of Mons. Sgt Bates was a native of Morton and so his name is also on the village war memorial. Mrs Scotney subsequently lost her eldest son Fred on the Somme in 1916 where he died from exposure after being trapped in mud, and her husband was killed shortly afterwards. News of the death of Sgt Bates did not arrive in Bourne until Wednesday 30th September and he was remembered at a memorial service held at the Abbey Church the following Sunday.

The last name of the last soldier who died in the Great War of 1914-18 to be added to the Roll of Honour on the cenotaph is that of G Coverley. He had been overlooked when the edifice was built and approaches from his relatives to remedy the omission were originally refused but the case was taken up by the Royal British Legion and his name was added to the memorial in 1985. The addition, together with the names of three servicemen who had died in more recent wars, William Dodd, Richard Jennings and John Booth, was dedicated at a special service on VE Day, May 8th, conducted by the Vicar of Bourne, Canon John Warwick, and attended by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Mrs Lesley Patrick and Lady Jane Willoughby.

35397 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 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. No relations of Private Coverley are now left in Bourne.

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 the Stamford Mercury on Friday 24th January 1919:

Private George Hare, No 140820, of the 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. It was discovered later that he had been taken a prisoner of war and died while in captivity on 22nd July 1918, aged 21. He is buried at the Lille Southern Cemetery.

WAR MEMORIAL ROLL OF HONOUR

"In grateful memory of the men of Bourne who gave their lives for their country." - inscription at the top of the memorial.

There are three plaques containing the names of those from Bourne who fell in battle. One on the south side and another on the west side of the cenotaph list 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 and subsequent conflicts in other parts of the world.

Photographed in 2009

1914-1918 - south side (97 names)

H Allen, F N Andrews, A Ash, P Barsby, F Baldock, H Baldock, A Bates, C H Baxter,
R Benstead, J V Bosley, H Brightman, G A Brooks, W Bray, J Brown, S Brown, J Burt,
E Carvath, J A Carter, A Chambers, H P Cleary, H Clark, J E Clark, A E Clark,
W E Close, J A Clare, I Cooper, W Cook, C R Creek, A E Cursley, E Grummitt,
C A Green, G Hare, H Fortescue, J T Haines, G A Holland, C Hornsey, J C Hudson,
S Jackson, H L Joyce, S Kettle, F J Keal, B Kettle, T Knowles, A W Lane, H Lane,
F Lloyd, L Lloyd, F Larkinson, C Leary, G Lunn, W Lunn, G Marvin, A Mason,
W S Michelson, J Morton, C Mills, F Needham, W Needham, F North, W A Oakden,
C E Osgathorpe, R Osborn, R Pattison, E Parker, J Parry, R Parker, H Pearce, H Pridmore, H C Reeves, G H Rix, T B Rhodes, E Robinson, G Rouse, F Scotney,
G Sherwin, J J Smith, J H Smith, F J N Smith, R Smithson, F Stubley, E Stubley,
J Stevenson, P E Stevenson, G Tabor, A Thornton, H W Teat, W Thompson,
A Thompson, W M Toulson, A Watson, F E H Wass, W C F Watts, W Watson,
G A Woodward, E Wyles, E P Wass, G Coverley.

1914-18 - west side (38 names)

W Dasher, E J Backlog, A H Beecroft, J T Belcher, O I W Belton, W Bembridge Bennett, J B Booth, H Brighton, H Bush, T Chambers, E Clarke, A Codling, E Codling, C H Cooper, T Fowler-Dow, J A Hare, A Head, A O Hinson, A Kent, T Kettle, A A Kingsford, H K Knowles, C Luesby, G R Lunn, E H Marshall, E G Palmer, C Parker, H Pick, E Smith, G Stubley, H Swarbrick, W Swift, J C Swift, ?? Turner, R Turner, T Wakefield, E H Wass, F J W Wood.

1939-1945 (32 names)

J Brightman, C Bryant, J Clay, R J Cross,
R H Cook, R C Dewey, R J Gable,
C Girling, J Green, C A Green,
B J Katoff, E E Lockton, D Milner,
C E Michelson, H J E Mason,
C H Nield, W A Northern, W Pont,
F J Pattison, W H Riley, A J Rout,
L Riley, C R Schofield, R J Sayer,
R G Squires, W A Smith,
F R Sones, D Steel, H Showell,
G A Sibley, R Waller, D J Webb.

Other conflicts (3 names)

Malaya 1957: W Dodd.

Borneo 1962: R Jennings.

Northern Ireland 1975: J R Booth.

REMEMBERING G R LUNN

The name of G Lunn is included on the War Memorial although there is also a grave in the town cemetery with a headstone from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is inscribed:

241750 Lance Cpl G R Lunn
Lincolnshire Regiment
11th December 1917, aged 35

Photographed by Rex Needle

War dead graves in the cemetery

Four more of our war dead are buried together in the town cemetery with headstones from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. They are (left to right) 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.

The War Memorial only contains the names of those from this town who died during the 20th century but many others were killed in previous wars. A marble tablet was placed in the Abbey Church in December 1885 with the inscription: "For Queen and country. In memory of Laban James Blades, 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, who died at Souakim, 22nd May 1885, aged 23. Beloved by all his comrades, and particularly by Lieutenant A P Crawley, by whom this stone was erected." Blades was one of the victims of the Sudan campaign and he died of fever while returning home on the hospital ship Ganges.

Photo courtesy John Nowell

An aerial view of the War Memorial gardens taken in the summer of 2008 and a later shot of the monument from 2009 (below).

Photographed in November 2012

The war memorial was given a thorough clean shortly before the Remembrance Day service in November 2012 when workmen spent several days cleaning the stonework and replacing the flags.

Photographed in November 2014

A veterans' walk comprising memorial stones bearing regimental crests of those who died together with wooden crosses and wreaths was added to the War Memorial during the summer of 2014 to mark to centenary of the outbreak
of the Great War.

OMISSIONS FROM THE WAR MEMORIAL

by Tony Stubbs

The names of men being left off war memorials throughout England is not unusual. In the aftermath of the Great War, conditions throughout the country were unsettling with a feeling that things would never be quite the same again. Young widows had more pressing problems than submitting names of their loved ones, families moved away and many were so distressed that they wanted nothing more to do with the recent conflict or commemoration.
There are nearly 40 men from Bourne who are not remembered on the War Memorial which I have discovered during 15 years of research. The original wooden plaque in the Abbey Church records 91 names while other churches in the town have their own forms of remembrance.
The first war memorial in Bourne was the 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. The cenotaph in South Street was not erected until 1956 and includes men who died in the Second World War of 1939-45 and subsequent conflicts. The WW1 plaque lists 97 men whose names were originally on the church memorial with a few additions but by this time, many families from this period had died out or moved away and so many names were not included.
There has never been any hard and fast rules for including names on war memorials and the only really accurate ones are those installed by larger organisations such as the Post Office, banks, insurance and railway companies, who knew exactly who was on their pay roll. With many towns and villages, it was invariably left to the town or parish clerk who waited for names to be submitted and so many irregularities occured. For instance, the War Memorial in Bourne does not include Private J Hudson who moved with his family to Nottingham well before the war broke out, also Private J V Bosley who emigrated to Australia.
There is also the case of Private Herbert Percy Cleary of the 6th Lincolns, formerly a ticket collector at Bourne railway station, who was killed in action at Suvla Bay during the Gallipoli campaign on 9th August 1915, with several other men from Bourne. Yet due to the circumstances, the name of Private Cleary has the distinction of appearing on eight memorials.

NOTE: This is an edited version of a report from Stamford Mercury of Friday 28th August 2009
by Tony Stubbs, military historian, who has chronicled the history of
the War Memorial in Bourne.