2nd King's Own Scottish Borderers

[Curlew1919]

Also the schedule you posted is from 1919

The schedule and the letter I posted are both from 1923 4 years later.. 

[LDT006]

1 hour ago, Curlew1919 said:

Your talking about an entirely different thing.

No we are not and I don't understand your problem.

There are 12 headstones at Hooge Crater without bodies, fully agree.
But there are also 13 graves at Hooge Crater which were exhumed from La Chapelle, do you contest this?

[Curlew1919]

3 hours ago, LDT006 said:

No we are not and I don't understand your problem.

There are 12 headstones at Hooge Crater without bodies, fully agree.
But there are also 13 graves at Hooge Crater which were exhumed from La Chapelle, do you contest this?

No I do not contest the 13 bodies which were exhumed from La Chapelle Farm and buried at Hooge Crater Cemetery with a headstone which states "A soldier who died in the Great War known onto God" 

When the headstones which has my great uncles name on and the other 11 which has no body underneath which would you prefer? 

Grow up man a headstone with "A soldier who died in the Great War. Known unto God" is as much use as a chocolate fireguard which only benefits some rich stonemasons firm. 

That schedule you put on how many names benefited from it on a headstone known unto God? 

Whether my great uncle is one of them or not who knows and who knows if his bits a still strewn along the Vaarstraat? 

All that matters is he is commemorated on a headstone at Hooge Crater unlike the hundreds of thousands on some stupid headstone saying known unto God making some stonemason rich. 

There is another 60 lads from the 2nd NF who died in February 1915 and only 30 are on that other sham the Menin Gate. 

The memorials to the missing what a joke. 

All of the hundreds of thousands of lads on them memorials a should have there names on a headstone in the nearest cemetery to where they died. 

Known unto God on a headstone what an insult to our War Dead... 

[Curlew1919]

ps Frank Monaghan's older brother William Monaghan with 1st Royal Scots was killed a few months later with another 50 Royal Scots at Sanctuary Wood. 

And only about 25 are them are on the Menin Gate? 

And there are hundreds of headstones in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery with "A soldier who died in the Great War Known unto God" 

Instead of being on the Menin Gate my Great uncle should have a headstone with his name on in Sanctuary Wood Cemetery along with his 49 mates. 

Oh the pomp and ceremony of the Menin Gate and the millions of pounds spent on upgrading it shortly. 

Why not spend the millions of pounds on giving hundreds of thousands of ordinary Soldiers like my great uncle William Monaghan a headstone with there names on next to the nearest cemetery where they died? 

And build yuppee flats with pipers piping every night at the Menin Gate. 

[Curlew1919]

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
the unheroic dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,-
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?

Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride
'Their name liveth for ever', the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
as these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

by Siegfried Sassoon

[Curlew1919]

Anyhow seen as there are no replies now? 

I am entitled to ask why was Frank Monaghan and the other 11 who lost their graves not commemorated just a few hundred yards away at Chester Farm not a few miles away at Hooge Crater Cemetery? 

But I am more than happy for him to be commemorated with a headstone with his name on albeit no grave at Hooge Crater Cemetery. 

His parents and his sister (my grandmother Sarah Monaghan) never knew where him and his older brother William were commemorated or had the means to go to Ypres. 

Like me I also have not the means or even the passport to travel to Ypres I am content in the knowledge that Frank Monaghan is at least remembered (him and his brother are not even remembered in there own home town on a Cenotaph) shame on the UK and shame on the countless memorials (in lower case) to the missing. 

The sooner them memorials to the missing are demolished the better. 

I certainly won't be passing under that phoney Menin Gate. 

Goodnight William and Frank Monaghan and God Bless it won't be long before we all are equal in the next world. 

We are all born equal and we die equal. 

In nomine Patri et Spiritu et Sancti Amen. 

 

[Curlew1919]

On 14/11/2022 at 19:51, LDT006 said:

No we are not and I don't understand your problem.

There are 12 headstones at Hooge Crater without bodies, fully agree.
But there are also 13 graves at Hooge Crater which were exhumed from La Chapelle, do you contest this?

Can I take this posting to apologise for my ignorance LDT006. 

After further research I find that you are probably correct in stating one of the 17 graves moved from La Chapelle Farm with 'Soldier who died in the Great War.. Known unto God' could as you say possibly contain the body of Frank Monaghan. 

I have also found that some of the bodies in other graves 'Soldiers who died in the Great War.. Known unto God' were from Sanctuary Wood who could not be identified. 

That's were Frank's older brother William Monaghan of the 1st Battalion Royal Scots was last seen in May 1915 and has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate. 

So if I ever come into a few Bob I will renew my passport (last one ran out 2010) and put flowers on every grave with 'Soldier who died in the Great War.. Known unto God' 

Mind going by the number of unknown graves will have to buy all the stock of a few florists and hire an articulated vehicle to transport them.

And put cards to Frank and William Monaghan with all of them. 

But good to know that Frank and William Monaghan from Jarrow, South Tyneside (2nd generation Catholic Irish) could be both at peace in Hooge Crater Cemetery. 

In nominee patri. et filia. et spiritu sancti. Amen. 

Edited 4 December , 2022 by Curlew1919
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