Commemoration of Field Marshalls

[Northern Soul]

While searching for a name on the CWGC web site, I happened on this man;

Name: BROWNLOW, Sir CHARLES HENRY

Initials: C H

Rank: Field Marshal

Regiment: General Staff

Secondary Regiment: 20th Duke of Cambridge's Own Inf. (Brownlow's Punjabis)

Age: 84

Date of Death: 05/04/1916

Awards: GCB

Additional information: of Warfield Hall, Berks. Married Georgiana King. Commanded 20th (The Duke of Cambridge's Own Punjab) Bengal Infantry, 1857-72 (Hon. Col. from 1904; Regiment is now entitled 20th Duke of Cambridge's Own Infantry (Brownlow's Punjabis)). A.D.C. to H.M. Queen Victoria, 1869-81. Assistant Military Secretary for Indian Affairs at Horse Guards, 1879-89.

Grave/Memorial Reference: In NE corner.

Cemetery: WARFIELD (ST. MICHAEL) CHURCHYARD EXTENSION

He seems rather old to have played a significant role in the war, so is he commemorated because, as a Field Marshall, he would never have officially retired from the Army?

Andy.

[Hugh Pattenden]

Andy,

I amy be wrong, but I recall reading somewhere that the rank of Field Marshall is held for life, i.e. they can't retire per se. Perhaps, since he was technically a serving officer and he died during the war, the CWGC commemorate him.

Hope this is of help,

Hugh

[armourersergeant]

Roberts who was a FM visited France in 1914 and it cost him his life. He was accepted as a serving officer as such and given the due respect of his rank, though not sure they would have let him go over the top!

regards

Arm.

[Will O'Brien]

While searching for a name on the CWGC web site, I happened on this man;

He seems rather old to have played a significant role in the war, so is he commemorated because, as a Field Marshall, he would never have officially retired from the Army?

Andy.

Andy..................How bizare.............exactly the same thing hapened to me a few weeks ago whilst looking for a local casualty from WWII............My Field Marshall was even older than yours & as a bonus a royal.

Name: WINDSOR, ARTHUR WILLIAM PATRICK ALBERT

Initials: A W P A

Nationality: United Kingdom

Rank: Field Marshal

Regiment: General Staff

Age: 91

Date of Death: 16/01/1942

Awards: KG, KT, KP, GCB, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GCVO, GBE, VD, TD

Additional information: 1st Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Third son of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria.

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead

Cemetery: FROGMORE ROYAL BURIAL GROUND

[Terry Denham]

Andy

You are correct.

Field Marshals, Admirals of the Fleet and Marshals of the Royal Air Force never retire and therefore, if they died within the qualifying periods, they qualify for war grave status as they were 'in service' - hence the entry for Windsor above (the oldest war grave occupant from either war).

An interesting fact about Brownlow is that he was omitted from the initial lists and did not appear in the CWGC registers. He was added to the database later!

[michaeldr]

Apropos the burial of and memorials to Field Marshals, can I share the following with you

It is from Lyall Wilkes’ biography of Festing: “Festing-Field Marshal; A Study of Front Line Frankie GCB,KBE,DSO.”

“With entire consistency he had therefore given instructions that he wished to be ‘planted’ near it, but not in it.

[he was RC and therefore supported his local Anglican parish church from without] So he was buried in an open field in his own ownership adjacent to Greystead church graveyard. He said that if the foxes dug him up, they had provided him with so many hours of good sport he would not begrudge them theirs. Again, it was entirely consistent with his life that there was an element of the comic about his funeral scene, with the Roman Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle in a mitre, carrying his crozier with some difficulty over a boggy corner of a field full of cow-pats and nettles, to consecrate the ground and conduct the prayers. The ceremony, with its mixture of the romantic and the incongruous, ended with the Green Jacket bugler sounding the Last Post and Reveille from a distant hill.

As Field Marshals can never retire, the War Graves Commission supplied a tombstone exactly like those in any military cemetery.”

I have visited the FM’s grave [his wife now lies next to him if I remember correctly] and like the bishop, one still has to negotiate the nettles, boggy ground and cow-pats to get there.

Regards

Michael D.R.

[johnreed]

Another fact not widely known is that as a serving Officer they do not pay death duties.

John