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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Favourite Gravestone Inscription


ianw

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Guest JoyLFC

On this the Anniversary of D Day. an inscription seen in Bayeux Cemetery.

"and I shall sleep in peace until you come to me" Good night, God Bless,

Daddy.

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Guest JoyLFC

two others from my collection.

"Only those who have loved and lost know the grief of war's bitter cost"

"To the world he was only a part. To us he was all the world"

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Guest JoyLFC

On the matter of stone types I have just photographed some CWGC stones in Hartshill Cemetery in Stoke on Trent which are polished dark grey marble.

they are dotted around the cemetery and include first and second war casualties. Never seen that sort before.

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"His memory like the ivy clings round my broken heart"

Grave of 2/Lt Archie Brown (126 Heavy Battery, RFA). Killed in Action 6 April 1918, age 28. Buried in Headuville Communal Cemetery Extension.

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For those who have never seen a granite CWGC headstone....

The front is polished and the other surfaces left rough with the lettering painted in with black paint.

post-19-1054911981.jpg

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Bob

CWGC often use a 'local' stone instead of the usual Portland Stone.

This can be for practical reasons - granite will withstand better the ravages of harsh weather in some regions (Scotland, Iceland, Norway etc) - or they sometimes use it to blend in with local headstones. Slate will often be found in Wales as it is a 'local' stone.

It may also sometimes be cheaper to use locally quarried stone. Although headstones are now manufactured in CWGC's own workshop in France, this was not always the case. The vast bulk of original headstones were manufactured by various contractors around the UK.

However, in some places (ie Scotland) you will often see a mixture of Portland and granite stones in the same cemetery. I know of no hard and fast rules about the usage of particular stones.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Private D. Langley, Monmouthshire Regiment

died 26th August 1915, age 21

Kemmel Chateau Military Cemetery

"Mother waited his return

to clasp his loving hand

but God postponed

the meeting"

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As mentioned NZ did not allow personal inscriptions, and there are not many NZ CWWG graves actually in NZ, but here are some from ONeills Pt Cemetery, Bayswater, Auckland.

This is close to the Narrowneck Military Camp site at Devonport, where many NZ servicemen trained before leaving for overseas.

Note that these deaths are all late in 1918.

They could have died from the Spanish flu epidemic, which was raging through the Pacific area at the time.

post-19-1056239217.jpg

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Compare the stone for Alex Saunders of the Fiji 3rd Contingent

a lovely pinkish stone.

- in memory of Lance Corporal Alex Saunders

84836

3rd Fijian Contingent,

who died at Narrow Neck Military Camp

9th November 1918

This monument was erected by the officers, non-commissioned officers,

and men of this contingent

post-19-1056239366.jpg

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Guest Steve Seaman

I cannot remember the cemetary name , but I saw the below on a headstone in Ypres.

'Gone West'.

I think this was a common term used when a soldier had been killed.

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Hi Steve:

Here's a quote form "Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, And The First World War" by Jonathan F. Vance, pages 44 - 45:

"This convention was evident in war memorials, where resurrection and ascension imagery abounds. The National War Memorial in Ottawa, for example was carefully situated so that the movement of the figures was from west to east under the arch. The symbolism was clear: those Canadians who sacrificed their lives, who had, in soldier's slang, 'gone west,' would find everlasting life."

Attached is a picture of the Canadian National War Memorial.

Garth

post-19-1056295497.jpg

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Guest Steve Seaman

[ The symbolism was clear: those Canadians who sacrificed their lives, who had, in soldier's slang, 'gone west,' would find everlasting life.]

Thanks Garth, I often wondered where the term came from.

regards

Steve

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Sorry WW2 and private headstone in Exton Rutland but it makes you think ?

Keith

Rutland war memorials

post-19-1056403542.jpg

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Mother Shiptons amazing prophecy.

Mother Shipton.

A prophecy from an English psychic.

The medieval English seer and prophet Mother Shipton foretold of a time when the Earth would be ravaged by disastrous events and happenings. Although she gave no firm date for when this would happen, the extract below makes chilling reading. We bring it to you without comment or any attempt at interpretation, which in this case appears clear enough.

"When women dress like men and trousers wear,

And cut off all their locks of hair,

When pictures look alive with movements free,

When ships like fishes swim beneath the sea.

When men outstripping birds can soar the sky,

Then half the world, deep drenched in blood,

shall die...."

http://www.space-2001.net/html/shipton.html

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Lee,

I would have thought that the part about women wearing the trousers covers Mr Blair (and quite probably "the world drenched in blood " section as well.)

I think Mother Shipton also prophesised a crap Health Service , failing railways and John Prescott's dismal grammar elsewhere in her writings !

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Personally I find every inscription touching, every headstone touches me deep inside regardless of the words inscribed.

As mentioned previously, the inscription that tops my list is 'A Soldier of the Great - Known Unto God'.

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Whilst not doubting the WW1 adaptation of the phrase "Gone West", IIRC its origins are much earlier and come from 18th C London to describe the westward journey of the condemned man from Newgate to Tyburn.

I would have to check but I think I read this definition in Peter Ackroyd's "London: A Biography" or possibly in one of Peter Linebaugh's works on Crime and Punishment and the London Mob (Albion's Fatal Tree?)

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This one is in the Salient but I do not know the cemetery will try to find out.

TO MEMORY EVER DEAR. IS IT WELL WITH YOU MY HUSBAND? IS IT WELL?

Well I think but am not sure this is in Dud Corner.

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