A Father's View

[Terry Denham]

The following is a picture of a headstone in St Alban's Churchyard, Frant, East Sussex taken during the Pals' mini-outing yesterday.

The grave is that of a local family, the Bridgers, and it bears a memorial inscription to one of their two sons killed in France obviously added by the father (the mother died before WW1).

In case the inscription is not clear, part of it reads...

Frederick Edwin Bridger

Killed in France 1918. Resting in an

unknown grave or in Westminster Abbey

This optimistic inscription is sad enough but it seems that Mr Bridger Snr died a few years later possibly without knowing that his son's body had been found and that he did actually have a known grave -

Name: BRIDGER, FREDERICK EDWIN

Initials: F E

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Sapper

Regiment: Royal Engineers

Unit Text: 497th Field Coy.

Age: 35

Date of Death: 12/04/1918

Service No: 541344

Additional information: Son of William Bridger, of Frant, Sussex; husband of Sarah Elizabeth Baker (formerly Bridger), of 14, Stanley Rd., Tunbridge Wells.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Grave/Memorial Reference: XX. A. 11.

Cemetery: CABARET-ROUGE BRITISH CEMETERY, SOUCHEZ

[Will O'Brien]

Terry...............As Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery was used post 1918 for the burial of bodies found during battlefield clearance, would it be safe to assume that Sapper Bridger was one such casualty found & buried after the war?

[Terry Denham]

Could well be - or from a cleared cemetery.

Obviously his father was unaware of his burial place at the time of having the inscription added to the stone.

How many others comforted themselves with the same thought - that their son could be in Westminster Abbey. Quite a few, I suspect.

[j.r.f]

Surley,in a sense,they ARE all burried in WESTMINSTER ABBEY.The grave of the unknown warrior is there to be a representative of ALL of them ,and so,in this sense,they are all there.

cheers

john

[Guest Hill 60]

How many others comforted themselves with the same thought - that their son could be in Westminster Abbey. Quite a few, I suspect.

My father's side of the family always wondered if the 'Unknown Warrior' at the Abbey was one of their own (William Swain, see my singnature) as he was believed to be missing.

My biggest regret was listening to family history and not checking with the CWGC, by the time I discovered that William had a known grave my Grandmother (his sister) had just died.