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OUR WAR MEMORIAL
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This article was first published by the Pirton Magazine in May 2003, and is provided courtesy of the magazine, the editor Derek Jarrett. Further acknowledgments appear at the end of the article.
FRANK CANNON
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Our War Memorial has stood proudly in St.
Mary’s churchyard
for over 80 years. Each year, on the Sunday nearest to Armistice Day, many
villagers gather at the Memorial and the names of those who died in the two
World Wars are read out. We hear the thirty names of men, all young, who died in
the 1914-1918 War.
To be on our Memorial they must have had a strong association with Pirton. It is hard, and painful in recollection, to realise that these men knew our village so well, passing the same pond that we walk by, along the same High Street to the same village school that the young do over 90 years later. Plucked from the peacefulness of Pirton, they volunteered to fight - and died.
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It
is important that we know about these young men; that they are not simply names
on a monument, but brave people from our community. Much has been done by Lynda
Smith, of the Bedfordshire Family History Society's War Memorial Project
www.roll-of-honour.com; much, too,
by others to discover their story.
Of some we know much, of others very little. Some are on the Memorial because they were born and grew up in our village; others have, as yet, no proven link with Pirton, yet link there must have been. We can only hope that our series of articles will prompt further details of the men. We are grateful to those who have already provided much information; we hope for more.
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We
cannot yet find what is his association with Pirton. He was certainly a local
man, born in Hitchin, seemingly at 87 Walsworth Road, the fact that he is on the
memorial indicates a strong connection with Pirton. He married and perhaps his
wife, Violet Maud, came from Pirton. He enlisted in Hitchin and it may well be
that he was a regular soldier, for by 1916 he was a Company Sergeant Major (No.
14982) with the 11th Battalion, Essex Regiment.
On 15th February 1916 he became the first 'Pirton' man to be killed in the 'war to end all wars'. It seems he was the only man from the Essex regiment to die on that particular Tuesday during a period when few deaths were recorded. His army record states that he was 'killed in battle', one wonders if his apparent 'isolated' death may have been from a sniper's bullet. He was buried in the Potijze Burial Ground Cemetery leper, West-Vlaanderen. (Burial ref. H.10) (translated from Flemish this is at Potiijze, a small village between Ypres (leper) & Passchendaele; Vlaanderen, Flanders).
**Thanks to Lynda Smith www.roll-of-honour.com, Jonty Wild www.pirton.org.uk, 'A Foot on Three Daisies', Michael Newbery, Hitchin Library for help with the text. Thanks to Chris Ryan for the photograph.
Points of contact are:
Pirton Website Jonty Wild via jontywild@pirton.org.uk
We would like to ask for your help, if you have any information, photographs or artefacts:
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For the remaining men yet to be included in a magazine article. |
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For any new information on those already published or following publication. |
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For men who survived the war. |
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If you have any photographs of soldiers from that war who you believe may be related to Pirton, but don't know who they are |
Please get in touch jontywild@pirton.org.uk
Also if anyone would like copy of any Pirton WW1 war grave or memorial please contact Jonty Wild, digital copies for personal use will be provided free of charge to relatives, photographs can be provided for a small charge.
