Guillaume Vital Sterckx - Belgian War Grave Westerham

[Grovetown]

While beetling around St Mary's churchyard in Westerham on Sunday, I came across a Belgian war grave for October 16 1914.

 

The solider is Guillaume Vital Sterckx, Soldat 2 Kl. VMP, no. 23841, 13 Linie 1/1 (1 Cie).

 

Googling around, I came across a few references to a book called De Onfortuinlijke Guillaume Vital Sterckx, which apparently translates as 'The Unfortunate Guillaume Vital Sterckx'.

 

It feels unlikely that this book relates to a different person, given the specifics of the name (unless a common combination) and wondered if anyone here could shed light on poor old Guillaume, and why he was considered unfortunate (apart from the obvious) and what was he doing in Westerham?

 

Cheers,

 

GT

 

Edited 30 April , 2019 by Grovetown

[HERITAGE PLUS]

GT

 

Looks like he was wounded and evacuated to England, with 53 other men, for treatment and he died in Dunsdale VAD Hospital.

 

See:  http://www.visitwesterham.org.uk/heritage/fww/1914-2

 

Dave

Edited 30 April , 2019 by HERITAGE PLUS

[Grovetown]

Thanks very much.

 

That note has him as Vital Guillaume Sterckx, rather than the CWGC's Guillaume Vital Sterckx; which'll explain why that didn't show up on a fixed text search.

 

It also gives him a different service number to the CWGC.

 

Still intrigued if he's the eponymous Unfortunate of the book!

 

Cheers,

 

GT.

 

 

Edited 30 April , 2019 by Grovetown

[corisande]

FWIW.

 

There is an ongoing court case in London in which between 1910 and 1912, a jeweller called Sterckx sues for the loss of jewellery . In the end he loses the case. It was report in UK press including Times

 

Nowhere in the reports though can I find Mr Sterckx being given any initials

 

It may me worth pursuing to see if any of the reports gave initials

 

 

[RaySearching]

listed as 

Gustave Guillaume Vital  STERCKX

on the Belgian war dead register

 

Ray

[Grovetown]

15 hours ago, RaySearching said:

listed as 

Gustave Guillaume Vital  STERCKX

on the Belgian war dead register

 

Ray

 

Many thanks. All the above goes to show that the MICs, PRO and CWGC aren't alone in the vagaries of naming, record keeping etc.

 

Cheers,

 

GT.

[Steve Goodall]

We were visiting Westerham in Kent over the weekend and came across this Belgian soldier's grave in amongst a selection of CWGC headstones. I thought it looked quite interesting. The other graves were from a mixed bag of units - Royal West Kent, Lincolnshire, Grenadier Guards, Royal Sussex and even one from the AIF.

[BarbaraG]

http://www.visitwesterham.org.uk/heritage/fww/1914-2

 

His funeral details transcribed here. 

More details on CWGC database 

https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/6010772/GUILLAUME VITAL STERCKX/

 

Edited 16 August , 2021 by BarbaraG