Memorial in St Matthew's Church, Moulmein

[pierssc]

We visited Myanmar (formerly Burma) earlier this year, and I took this photo of a memorial in St Matthew's Church in what used to be called Moulmein and is now Mawlamyine.

 

There are not many memorials of any kind left in the church; apparently it suffered a lot of damage in WW2.

 

 

 

The names are:

 

Lionel Henry Liptrap Carver

Amos Lloyd Connor

George E. Cuningham

Percy Dawn

Harold Dawn

Arthur Dawn

John Francis Xavier D'Mello

Henry Vane Fanshaw

Clement Foucar

Louis Foucar

C.E. Graham

John Graves

Osman Hannay

Cyril R. Hughes

Alexander Muir

Otto Robert C. Mullerworth

Guy Barclay Pollexfen

George Edward Thomson

Philip Thompson

Philip Edward Utting

Neville Ward

 

A few of the men listed have appeared on previous threads on the GWF

 

Carver https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/174937-great-war-stained-glass-memorials-to-fallen/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-1706172

Cuningham https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/242205-george-edmund-cuningham/?tab=comments#comment-2434339

Graves https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/215464-capt-j-graves-suffolk-yeomanry/?tab=comments#comment-2141861

Thompson possibly https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/71916-capt-philip-thompson-no-22-sqdn-royal-flying-corps/?tab=comments#comment-650393

 

I post it here in case it is of use to anyone.

 

Piers

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 September , 2019 by pierssc

[rolt968]

I wonder what the connection was. This seems to be Philip Edward Utting:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1601686/utting,-philip-edward/

RM

[pierssc]

And I suspect "Osman Hannay" is Osmond George Hannay https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/333227/hannay,-osmond-george/

[pierssc]

Mullerworth here: https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/638032/mullerworth,-/

[BereniceUK]

Thank you for posting this, Piers. Much appreciated.

[Uncle George]

One can’t help but think of Kipling:

 

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea,

There’s a Burma girl a-settin, and I know she thinks o’ me;

For the wind is in the palm trees, and the temple-bells they say:

‘Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!’ ... 

 

 

 

[pierssc]

4 hours ago, Uncle George said:

One can’t help but think of Kipling:

 

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ lazy at the sea,

There’s a Burma girl a-settin, and I know she thinks o’ me;

For the wind is in the palm trees, and the temple-bells they say:

‘Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!’ ... 

 

 

 

 

Indeed. 

 

 

[rolt968]

This is John Francis Xavier D'Mello, I think (Baptised 1889, St. Mary's Moulmein):

https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=BL%2FBIND%2FB%2F535508

RM

 

Edit:

I wonder if this is him?

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/628123/d'mello,-/

 

Edited 4 September , 2019 by rolt968

[pierssc]

I suspect it might be.  There aren't many Mello/De Mello/D'Mello s on the CWGC website, and this one has a Burma link, and a Mayawady one at that.  I suppose it is possible that somewhere along the clerking line "Xavier" was heard or recorded as "Savier", hence the "S".

 

Myawady (now usually written Myawaddy) is a town on the Thai/Burma border more or less due east of Moulmein - assuming there have been no changes to national borders.   Rather at the back of beyond in terms of early twentieth-century Burma.  Nowadays Myawaddy is a significant crossing point between the two countries (we crossed from Thailand there), but only 15 or so years ago peering across from the Thai side I remember it looking very small and sleepy.   I don't think that Mawlamyine and Myawaddy have been connected directly until very recently, but my guess is that 100 years ago (and probably even today) the river could have been used for the part of the the journey, in which case Moulmein WAS probably the nearest significant British settlement to Myawady.  This is a rather longwinded way of saying that they're both in roughly the same part of the country so I think a connection is plausible.

Edited 4 September , 2019 by pierssc

[rolt968]

8 minutes ago, pierssc said:

I suspect it might be.  There aren't many Mello/De Mello/D'Mello s on the CWGC website, and this one has a Burma link, and a Mayawady one at that.  I suppose it is possible that somewhere along the clerking line "Xavier" was heard or recorded as "Savier", hence the "S".

 

Myawady (now usually written Myawaddy) is a town on the Thai/Burma border more or less due east of Moulmein - assuming there have been no changes to national borders.   Rather at the back of beyond in terms of early twentieth-century Burma.  Nowadays Myawaddy is a significant crossing point between the two countries (we crossed from Thailand there), but only 15 or so years ago peering across from the Thai side I remember it looking very small and sleepy.   I don't think that Mawlamyine and Myawaddy have been connected directly until very recently, but my guess is that 100 years ago (and probably even today) the river could have been used for the part of the the journey, in which case Moulmein WAS probably the nearest significant British settlement to Myawady.  This is a rather longwinded way of saying that they're both in roughly the same part of the country so I think a connection is plausible.

Thanks for the information about Myawaddy. I really don't know the geography of that part of the world at all.

Did you notice that his mother had married again and was Mrs R Thompson (and there are Thompsons on the memorial?)

RM

[pierssc]

Thompson and Thomson..... you're right, it hadn't struck me.  But if the RFC Philip Thompson is the right guy his parents are listed differently.

[rolt968]

This is Clement Foucar:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1612872/foucar,-clement-auguste/

There is an entry in de Ruvigny

[rolt968]

I think Louis Foucar must be James Louis Foucar

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1612873/foucar,-james-louis/

 

[pierssc]

There can't be many with such a close name, but I wonder what the Burmese connection was?  He may have grown up there of course.

 

Short biog here: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205294984

[rolt968]

I haven't checked how the two Foucars are related, however the entry in de Ruvigny for Clement Foucar provides useful information:

"4th son of the late Ferdinand Louis Foucar, of Rangoon and Moulmein, Burma, Teak Merchant [of a Huguenot family who came from Proisy in Picardy after the Revocation of the Treaty of Nantes, 1685]" 

RM

[pierssc]

I think that's Clement accounted for then, and James Louis looks like the right guy.  If you Google him you find he was a technical chemist and quite a scientist.  A posthumously published paper of which he is co-author has him as "Major J. Louis Foucar" which indicates (to my mind at least) that he was known as Louis, as was the man on the memorial.  His parents are different to Clement's but both fathers appear to have been born in Germany.    James Louis' father was Alexander Louis who was born in Friedrichsdorf, near Frankfurt who became a naturalised British Citizen in 1889 and J.L was born in Brockley (South London) according to the 1911 census.  According to Wikipedia Friedrichsdorf was founded by Hugenots - French Protestants - in 1687, which helps to explain why there are Foucars on a memorial in a C of E church.

 

The trouble is that - apart from being a Foucar and probably related (I really don't want to get too far into this) - there doesn't seem to be a Burma connection for James Louis.  On the other hand Clement had a brother Louis F[erdinand].  There seems to be someone on Ancestry researching them - it may be simplest for me to drop her a line! 

 

I'm really not researching any of these people as such (I put the photo up and listed the names so that if anyone did a Google search for any of them, they'd hopefully show up) and I'm trying to resist the temptation to dig very much deeper, but it is interesting to discover a bit about them isn't it?

 

There's an 1895 Moulmein directory online at https://abldirectories.weebly.com/1895-moulmein.html which may catch some of the parents of the people listed (they may of course be unrelated).  Names include

 

W.A.W. Dawn is an assistant at  T.D. Findlay, Bodeker & Co. , Rice and Timber Merchants

T. D'Mello, residing Mayangoon St

F.L. and E.J. Foucar, of Foucar & Co, Merchants, Commission Agents and Mill owners (FL - presumably Ferdinand Louis - Clement's dad - was also the German Consul) both residing in Mission Road.

J.O. Hughes, Advocate 1st Grade, also proprietor of the "Moulmein Advertiser"

G. Muir, Engineer and Mill Superintendant, Bombay-Burmah Trading Corporation Ltd

L.S. Thomson, Burmese interpreter, Judge's Office (who may or may not also be L.S. Thompson, Treasury Accountant, Deputy Commissioner's office)

E. Thompson, Preventative Office, Customs dept, residence not listed, also an L Thompson and N Thompson residing in Mayangoon (an interestingly mixed area with a number of residents with French, Portuguese (?) and Burmese names

 

The 1905 directory https://abldirectories.weebly.com/1905-moulmein.html

introduces a J. Connor, Public Works Department, Amhurst Division, Supervisor at Tavoy;

R.B. Muir and a G Muir (possibly not the G Muir of 1895) are both assistants at Bombay-Burmah

Mrs M Mullerwurth (sic) is an assistant teacher at ABM Burma Boys School

an E.L. Thompson is a 2nd Clerk in the Customs dept (E. Thompson is still a Preventative Officer)

There's a W. Thomson and an E. Thomson living at apparently different addresses in Penang St

 

Dawn is still in post at T.D. Findlays, F.L. Foucar has vanished and E.J. Foucar is now Manager of Foucar's and German Consul (residing Salween Park)

D'Mello and Hughes have disappeared

 

The 1915 Moulmein directory https://abldirectories.weebly.com/1915-moulmein.html

G.E. Cunningham (sic) - of the memorial? - is an assistant at TD Findlay & Son Ltd.  Mr Dawn is now the Manager.

E.J. Foucar is director of the family firm, but is now an Honourary Magistrate.

C.E. Graham Lieutenant, Border Regiment, is Adjutant of the Moulmein Volunteer rifles.  Probably Cecil Erskine Graham whose CWGC entry is  https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/931473/graham,-cecil-erskine/

W. Muir is a Forest assistant at TD Findlays

There is no Mrs Mullerworth (or Mullerwurth)

All the Thomsons and Thompsons have gone.

J.H. Utting is a licenced pilot in the Marine dept.

 

By 1920 most of the names have vanished.  https://abldirectories.weebly.com/1920-moulmein.html

W.A.W. Dawn and E.J. Foucar are still there.  A Miss L.B. Hughes is an ABM Missionary and is probably also the Miss Lizbeth B Hughes who is a Superintenant of the  A.B.M Morton Lane Burmese Girls High & Normal Schools.  An F.P. Thomson is an Extra Assistant Conservator in the Forestry Dept. That's it.

 

Edited 5 September , 2019 by pierssc
various types and got Graham and Graves muddled

[Eastindia]

Rather belatedly I have discovered these very helpful replies for which many thanks. Much appreciated