In Memoriam Latest Topics

W. Pratt, Pte., G/4178, 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 15:44:57 +0000

W. Pratt, Pte., G/4178, 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Died 13 March 1916, buried in Bethune Town Cemetery.

Fading away like the stars in the morning,

Losing their light in the glorious sun,

Thus did they pass from this earth and its toiling,

Almost forgotten with what they had done.

Who’ll sing the anthem? Who’ll tell the story?

Did their line hold? Did it scatter and run?

Can they at last be united in glory,

And always remembered for what they have done?

RIP

The Execution of the Iron Twelve: 25 February 1915

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:33:46 +0000

Remembering today the 111th anniversary of the execution by the Germans in Guise Château of the eleven British soldiers and their French protector. Unusually these soldiers are remembered on the Guise town Monument aux Morts. I don't know of any other examples of British soldiers being commemorated by name on a French town monument. This year, I accompanied an US descendant of one John Nash, of the eleven British soldiers, around the sites associated with the tragedy. He gave a very moving token of remembrance to the Mayor of Iron in recognition of the help the villagers, and particularly the Logez and Chalandre families, had given to the British soldiers.

Gordon Corrigan, R.I.P

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 14:32:00 +0000

I’ve just seen that Major Gordon Corrigan died yesterday. A very entertaining public speaker, and according to my late cousin, a good companion on a battle tour, both on the ground, and in the evenings.

W. Brooks, Pte., 16112, 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 12:58:43 +0000

W. Brooks, Pte., 16112, 7th Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Died on February 8, 1917 and buried in Harbacq Communal Cemetery Extension

Fading away like the stars in the morning,

Losing their light in the glorious sun,

Thus did they pass from this earth and its toiling,

Almost forgotten with what they had done.

Who’ll sing the anthem? Who’ll tell the story?

Did their line hold? Did it scatter and run?

Can they at last be united in glory,

And always remembered for what they have done?

RIP

8547 WILLIs

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 07:14:32 +0000

Remembering today Alfred Ashley WILLIS, Private 2nd Suffolks KIA 15th January 1915, aged 23. Commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, panel 71

Ewart Claude Sands, Stoker II Class 1917

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 06:22:16 +0000

Today in 1917 was his 18th birthday. He joined up in Plymouth on 23 January 1917 and died in hospital there on 6 February 1917 of cerebro-spinal meningitis.

Alfred Langford, Pte, GS/167, 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 16:00:05 +0000

Alfred Langford, Pte, GS/167, 2nd Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment

Died 23-December-1914, and commemorated on Le Touret Memorial, Panel 20-21.

Fading away like the stars in the morning,

Losing their light in the glorious sun,

Thus did they pass from this earth and its toiling,

Almost forgotten with what they had done.

Who’ll sing the anthem? Who’ll tell the story?

Did their line hold? Did it scatter and run?

Can they at last be united in glory,

And always remembered for what they have done?

R.I.P.

2nd Lt. Donald Grant - 1/6th Seaforths 20 Nov 1917

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:17:35 +0000

It's 106 years ago today that my uncle 2nd Lt. Donald Grant of 6th Seaforths was killed on the first day of the battle of Cambrai. This was the first battle that featured tanks in great numbers.

He was the eldest of 7 siblings. My father was the youngest being born in 1908 and didnt feature in this photo. Donald volunteered on 14th August 1914.

My research revealed that Donald was mentioned in the regimental records and this confirms where and how he was killed. He gets gets a mention in “History of the Fifty First (Highland) Divn. 1914-1918 (pages 246-247) as follows:-

""“The second wave of the 6th Seaforth Highlanders, in spite of the heavy fire directed against them from Flesqieres Trench, made repeated attempts to enter it, in which all officers except one per company became casualties.

One officer in particular, 2nd Lieutenant Donald Grant, displayed great courage and initiative in his efforts to gain his objective. Leading his platoon along a communication trench, east of Flesquieres Wood, he drove the enemy before him, bayoneting many himself. When all his men but one were casualties, he climbed out of his communication trench and attempted to rush Flesquieres trench from above ground. He and his companion were immediately shot dead.”""

I have the letter he wrote to his sister on the eve of the battle saying that he was to lead his platoon on the second wave due to set out at 08.00am and that their objective was ‘near the beet root factory”. On the way, his battalion was to pass through the 8th Argyll & Southern Highlanders who had set out at 06.20 and whose objective (the Grand Ravine ) was secured by 09.40 am.

I was able to visit there in 2005 and the actual spot is about 50 meters form the location of where the memorial to the tank regiment is located.

My research was aided by local historian and hotelier Philip Gorzisnky who has a war museum in Flesquieres and who organised the unearthing of "Deborah" a Mark IV tank tank that was used in the battle.

See http://www.tank-cambrai.com/en/the-story-of-deborah/

and

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../cambrai-tank-museum.../

For those of you who have the time and are interested in WW1 history, here is a fascinating thread about the contents of a German soldiers trunk.

Private Robert Ewing 2/10th Royal Scots and 7th/8th KOSB who died 08/12/1916

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 13:51:11 +0000

Remembering my great-grandfather Robert Shepherd Ewing, who attested in the territorial force on 23 Jan 1915 for service in the UK with the Royal Scots (cyclist batallion). On 30th July 1916 he reverted to Private on transfer, attached to the 7/8th KOSBs (Kings Own Scottish Borderers.) He went to France with them, and was wounded on 18th August 1916 in the Somme at High Wood. Robert was evacuated back to the UK on 2 September but succumbed to his wounds on the 8th December 1916 at the Alexandra Red Cross Hospital Christchurch Hampshire.

18th August was a particularly deadly day for the 7th/8th KOSBs. Many of their ranks and other men detached from 2/10th Royal Scots are listed as KIA on this day. Several are commemorated at Thiepval and Caterpillar valley cemetery.

A huge thanks to the good folk here on the Great War Forum for their expertise in providing information on those last few weeks of his life.

Barnbow SFF

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:13:14 +0000

Remembering the 35 young women and girls who were killed outright and the others who later succumbed to their wounds as a result of the explosion in Room 42 of the Barnbow Shell Filling Factory at 10.27 pm on 5th December 1916.

Halifax, NS explosion 1917

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 19:06:30 +0000

Remembering all those who died on that day.

Halifax Explosion

Halifax was devastated on 6 December 1917 when two ships collided in the city's harbour, one of them a munitions ship loaded with explosives bound for the battl...

Frederick Walter Clack, Driver, 2062, 522nd Field Company, Royal Engineers

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 13:55:29 +0000

Frederick Walter Clack, Driver, 2062, 522^nd Field Company, Royal Engineers

Died of pneumonia on November 13, 1918, aged 25 yrs.

Buried in Alexandria (Hadra) Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.

Husband of Florence Edith (Mitchell) and father of Violet L. of Tonbridge, Kent.

Fading away like the stars in the morning,

Losing their light in the glorious sun,

Thus did they pass from this earth and its toiling,

Almost forgotten with what they had done.

Who’ll sing the anthem? Who’ll tell the story?

Did their line hold? Did it scatter and run?

Can they at last be united in glory,

And always remembered for what they have done?

L. L. Greener M.C.

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:26:38 +0000

Remembering Captain Leysters Llewelyn GREENER, M.C. 2/6th Warwickshire Regiment Killed in Action, aged 24 on the 5th December 1917. Commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial Panel 3.

A famous competitor at the Bisley Imperial Meeting and the son of an equally famous gunsmith, Greener amassed a score of 54 kills.

The Busseboom Thirteen

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 08:11:48 +0000

Remembering the thirteen members of the Chinese Labour Corps killed by a shell whilst at rest at Poperinghe 15th November 1917.

Men of Kexby & Scoreby

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 13:28:14 +0000

In May 2025 the Acting Clerk to Kexby & Scoreby Parish Council (near York) emailed me to say that using a grant the Council had a Great War memorial plaque made, https://www.wikitree.com/photo.php/3/3f/Hare-313.jpg, with members of my family named: the Hare family. This was to be mounted on stone and sit in the layby outside Ivy House Farm, where there is another plaque that has a poppy wreath put by it every year; this they hoped would be done by the end of 2025, when a suitable piece of stone would be sourced (the original plaque is in Wilberfoss Church, they said, in the neighbouring village).

"W, C and S" - William, Charles and Sydney - were three brothers: sons of Charles Albert Hare - https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hare-299 - who lies in St Paul's Church Yard, Kexby, Yorkshire; and all great-uncles of mine. I remember visiting Uncle Charlie and Auntie Lily in York, and their son Noel visiting my Grandmother in Grimsby. She told me that my great-grandfather sang a little song:

"I would so like to go

Have a crack at the Hun

But I can't go myself

So I'm sending my son."

With hindsight of course, he couldn't possibly have foreseen the horror that was the Great War trenches.

"SGV" was Stanley Gordon Vincent, son of Charles Albert's younger brother Elam (also buried at Kexby).

Two Hare cousins - Harold and Walter of Cawood in Yorkshire, and also grandsons of my great-great-grandfather George Hare https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hare-295 - fought, too. Both were taken prisoner; and Walter, interviewed late in life, produced a horrifically dramatic account of their time as Prisoners of War; see "Survivor's interview", https://www.greatwarforum.org/search/?&q=survivor%20interview&author=A%20Hare&search_and_or=or .

On a happy note, all of them survived!

Charles Albert Hare, and later his youngest son Herbert, ran the brickworks at Kexby - Lotherington and Hare - his eldest son Albert (my grandfather) those at Patrington and then Thirsk, where he was killed in an accident;

William, those at Patrington (after my grandfather went to Thirsk); Charlie, at York and Acomb;

and George's son Fred - Harold and Walter's father - at Northallerton and then Cawood.

Sydney alone of the family - the "S Hare" of the memorial - was not a brick and tile maker: after serving as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the RAF) he studied physics at Leeds and went into teaching, retiring as a headmaster in Carlisle. My father Charles Stewart (himself a WW2 veteran) took his Uncle Sydney to a Squadron reunion in his retirement, where he was feted as its oldest surviving member.

A Hare

8 November 1918 C.H. Thorpe

Sun, 09 Nov 2025 01:14:38 +0000

My husband's great-uncle, Clive Halliburton Thorpe, Company Quartermaster Serjeant 10th Bn (Kent Yeo.) The Buffs, age 32, picked off by a sniper on the way into Tournai.

(image mine)

In memory of Gnr W J Quested

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 08:41:15 +0000

Died 6th November 1918 five days before the end of ww1.

Uploading Attachment...

In memory of Gnr W J Quested ‘peace perfect peace with loved ones far away.’

Today’s RT

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 05:07:11 +0000

290015 KERR J

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 08:10:43 +0000

Remembering 290015 Serjeant Joseph KERR, Sniper, 5/6th Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), who died 17th October 1918 as a Prisoner of War, aged 32.

Buried Berlin South-West Cemetery, Germany. Plot 1.F.11

Score unknown

Frederick Guildford Adams, Private, L/10699 2nd Bn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 19:48:02 +0000

Frederick Guildford Adams, Private, L/10699 2^ndBn. Royal Sussex Regiment

Died of wounds, received at Loos, on October 13, 1915, aged 17 yrs.

Buried in Dud Corner Cemetery, Loos, France.

Son of Frederick George and Milly Kate (Ballard) Adams of Rye, Sussex.

Fading away like the stars in the morning,

Losing their light in the glorious sun,

Thus did they pass from this earth and its toiling,

Almost forgotten with what they had done.

Who’ll sing the anthem? Who’ll tell the story?

Did their line hold? Did it scatter and run?

Can they at last be united in glory,

And always remembered for what they have done?

RIP

James Scott Mclean

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 07:23:04 +0000

Remembering James Scott Mclean 12043 Scots Guards who was killed in action 9th October 1917 battle of Passcheldaele. Youngest son of Mary and Donald Mclean. Never forgotten, always loved. RIP James xx

June and Angie.

Ernest Serls

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 00:38:35 +0000

In memory of 2410 Ernest William Serls, 44th Btn AIF, killed in action 04/10/1917. Buried Tyne Cot.

Ernest Young

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 07:00:59 +0000

In memory of 15298 Pte E A Young, 10th Glosters. Wounded near Lone Tree 25/09/1915. Died of wounds, 01/10/1915.

Belatedly: 22 September. ABOUKIR, HOGUE, CRESSY.

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 01:28:37 +0000

Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust

Three Cruisers

On 22 September 1914, three Chatham Division cruisers, HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue and HMS Cressy, were sunk by a single German submarine, U9.

Staff Nurse Minnie Bailey Thompson TFNS

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 11:44:06 +0000

Remember The Fallen

Staff Nurse Minnie THOMPSON | Remember The Fallen

Staff Nurse Minnie THOMPSON served and died in WW1. Discover the memorials and service history of this War Casualty.