Unveiled on
06th November 1921 in front of a huge crowd led by local clergy and civic
dignitaries, Weymouth war memorial s located at the northern end of The
Esplanade at the junction with Brunswick Terrace., The Esplanade (B3155),
Weymouth, Weymouth And Portland, Dorset, DT4 7NG. It was designed by local
sculptor Francis W Doyle Jones from
Portland stone with bronze plaques. Plaques to remember the fallen of the
Second World War were added on 8th May 1949.
It is now in the care of Weymouth and Portland Borough
Council, which recently replaced some of the more corroded plaques.
Unveiled on
10 June 1920 Great Ponton war memorial consists of a square obelisk of
Cornish granite on a plinth of the same material. Engraving of a laurel wreath
on the lower part of the obelisk above the years of the First World War. All
lettering is leaded and on the front face of the monument. The main dedication
and WW1 names are on the plinth while WW2 names on the front face of the base.
It stands on concrete foundations.
Great Ponton is an English village and civil
parish in the South
Kesteven district of Lincolnshire,
3 miles (5 km) south of Grantham on
the A1 trunk road,
which bisects the village. The tower of the parish church is a roadside
landmark. The 2001 census recorded a population
of 333, of whom all were of white ethnic origin and 87 per cent described
themselves as Christian. The average age was 40. The population of the
civil parish had risen to 379 at the 2011 census. It was estimated at 369
in 2019.
Among the graves here are
Service Number: 40831
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Manchester Regiment
4th Bn.
Date of Death
Died 18 November 1918
Age 21 years old
Son of Mrs Musson of Great Ponton
And of
Service Number: 4802687
Regiment & Unit/Ship
King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Date of Death
Died 28 November 1942
Age 36 years old
He was the son of Joseph and Sarah Lamb. He left a widow, Mary Mabel Short Lamb, of Eyemouth, Berwickshire. He died at Grantham, Lincs
The war
memorial at Long Clawson in Leicestershire – best know these days for the dairy
producing Stilton Cheese, can be found at Back lane LE14 4PA. It
commemorates those from the village who were killed in not just the First and Second
World Wars, but also the conflict in Aden [1963-67]. The memorial is unusual in
that it was erected in 2016. Prior to that date the village had remembered its
war dead with a Roll of Honour mounted on a wall inside St Remigius Church on
Church Lane. The Roll of Honour is still there, listing the 157 who served in
the First World War.
.
War Memorial - Black Watch Corner
Near Zonnebeke
in Belgium
In 2014, a
statue of a Black Watch [officially the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment
of Foot] soldier was unveiled in Belgium to mark the
centenary of the battle that took place here in November 1914. The bronze
statue, designed by Edinburgh sculptor Alan Herriot, was installed in front of
300 regimental veterans at Black Watch Corner.
The official regimental history recorded:
Between 6.30 am and 9 am on 11 November, the heaviest
bombardment so far experienced by the British forces broke out; as it lifted, a
Division of the Prussian Guard, ordered by the Kaiser to break the British line
at all costs, attacked the front. Under cover of the bombardment, a strong
enemy force drove back D Company and the two platoons of A Company entrenched
at the south west corner of Polygon Wood. C Company under the command of
Lieutenant Anderson and in a strong point (point d’appui) 380 yards from the
south and west corner of Polygon Wood held out firmly. This split the attack
into small parties of 20–30 Prussians, many of whom were soon lost in the woods
behind. As they emerged from the back of the woods the guns of 41 Brigade Royal
Field Artillery, sited one thousands yards west of Nonne Bosschen Wood, opened
direct fire on the enemy at a range of 300–400 yards.
The effect was devastating and the German attack faltered.
At 3 pm a counter attack by the 2nd Battalion The Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, supported by the Royal Field Artillery,
destroyed the remnants of the Prussian Guard and the line between the Menin
Road and Polygon Wood was re-established. At 3.30 pm three Companies of the 1st
Battalion The Northamptonshire Regiment, supported by parties of The Black
Watch and Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, advanced from Nonne Bosschen Wood to
retake the south west corner of Polygon Wood. This corner was known on all
later maps as Black Watch Corner. Originally, however, it was the C
Company “strong point” south west of Polygon Wood which was given that name.
On 12 November 1914, the day after the battle, the strength
of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch had been reduced to 2 officers and 109
soldiers; the 1st Battalion Scots Guards to 1 officer and 69 soldiers and the
1st Battalion The Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders to 2 officers and 140
soldiers.
On 31 August 1914 a
patrol of Gemran uhlans [light cavalry armed with lances] arrived in Arras, almost directly north of Noyon. They stayed only a few hours before
trotting off. Six days later they were followed into the city by an entire
German division, which occupied Arras. The French attacked in October and drove
the Germans out. The Germans retreated only a short distance and throughout the
rest of the war the city lay within artillery range. Almost the entire city was
destroyed by 1918, including the famous cathedral.
I drove into Arras on a warm day with
the sun shining down. I had been told that the war memorial featuring an angel
stood just outside the railway station in Place Foch. As it turned out the
square was a short distance from the station, and it took me a bit of time to
work out where the angel was to be found.
She is a strikingly modern angel,
accompanied by a soldier. Between the two are engraved the words:
"Arras a ses enfants morts pour
la défense du droit. La Paix, les ailes largement déployées, debout sur le
promontoire. Le soldat français, hier soldat de Dieu, Aujourd’Hui Soldat de
l’humanité. Sera toujours le soldat du droit".
My rather poor command of French makes
that to mean:
"Arras
has his dead children for the defense of the right. Peace, wings widely spread,
standing on the promontory. The French soldier, yesterday a soldier of God,
today a soldier of humanity, will always be a soldier of what is right."
This is a complex monument for the
dominating figures are not the only ones here. There are reliefs on either side
of the angel and the soldier. Those on one side celebrate peace, while those on
the other show war. The peace reliefs start with a tractor in the fields with
four farm hands, accompanied by cows, horses, beehives and sacks of flour. Next
come three miners digging coal. Then there are women at work in the linen
industry, a woman holding a baby and sheaves of corn. The scenes fo war include
a soldier in the trenches, a donkey carrying a pack and five marching soldiers.
Then there are a sailor, an infantryman and an aviator holding hands. Then
there is a nurse carrying a tray of medicines and a figure representing “Notre
Dame de Lorette” that most important war memorial and cemetery. At the top
is a bundle of rifles flanked by two croix de guerres and above them a row of
torpedoes.
This is all the work of Félix-Alexandre Desruelles (1865–1943) who was born in nearby Valenciennes. It was inaugurated in
1933 by the then famous and much admired Marshal Philippe Petain, who before
the Great War had been the colonel of the 33rd Infantry Regiment
which was the main garrison force in Arras. It has been Petain who had taken
command at Verdun and brought an end to the German offensive there at the end
of 1916. He won ever greater plaudits from his contemporaries in 1940 when, as
Prime Minister, he negotiated what appeared to be a remarkably generous peace
from Hitler following the surrender of the French armies. As the war
progressed, it became clear that Petain had arranged little more than an abject
capitulation. By 1945 he was vilified and was thrown into prison having been
convicted of treason.
This grand monument was damaged by
German bombs on 19 May 1940. The town council made the rather quixotic decision
not to repair the memorial. They thought the scars of 1940 merely added to the
message of the horrors of war, so left them there. You can still see them
today.
Yesterday I have my talk on "Plagues, Pandemics and Covid-19" to a History Club in Sussex via Zoom.
This is - inevitably - a fairly grim talk but fascinating nonetheless. And in the end it has a message of hope to us all. Humanity has survived far worse diseases than Covid-19. Have a look at this map of the spread of the Black Death across Europe. Up to half the people in Europe were wiped out, and the population did not recover for 400 years. Compared to that, Covid-19 is barely a ripple on the story of humanity - tragic as the disease is for those who suffer from it.
The group I spoke to yesterday were particularly interested in the way that disease organisms are subject to the same evolutionary pressures as other plants and animals. Generally this works in the direction of making diseases milder in their impact on the human body, but more infectious. That has been the story of nearly all diseases to afflict humanity - with the noticeable exception of Spanish Flu which became more deadly as time passed because of the way human doctors treated it. A warning for the future.
Offer a range of over 20 talks, mostly on history subjects. Find out more on my website.
