Suicide, Memorial exclusion question

[Skipman]

A friend has asked me to ask the following question.

How likely is it that a WW1 soldier who died by suicide would be excluded from a memorial in the church or churchyard? ( a C of E parish church.)

Mike

 

[PRC]

1 hour ago, Skipman said:

How likely is it that a WW1 soldier who died by suicide would be excluded from a memorial in the church or churchyard? ( a C of E parish church.)

I take it you mean a War Memorial \ Roll of Honour rather than an actual burial?

If you do then the local committees that gathered names and solicited funds each set their own criteria, so the short answer is we will probably never know. In my experience many such committees would include the local CofE clergyman who in turn would offer up space in the churchyard \ support a request to the diocese court for an installation of the memorial, and therefore ensure some of the issue of long term maintenance was addressed. In some cases the presence of the clergy influence might have set a blanket ban from the outset, while it others the rejection probably came about during a review of the specific circumstances of the death for a name submitted for inclusion.

How these committees gathered names would also vary. To use examples from Norfolk that I'm familiar with, some parishes maintained both a roll of honour of those who died and of all those who served regardless of fate, and these were updated as the war went on - in one case nailed to the church door. Other war memorial committees, lacking such a starting position, benefitted from co-opting a wartime member of a local family support committee such as SSAFA and gaining access to their records. And some just started from scratch, putting out a request for names to be included on a memorial. The relatives of a soldier who committed suicide, if any even still lived in the parish, may have felt too ashamed to put his name forward. Being cynical I sometimes wonder if in some cases where there wasn't a wealthy benefactor to cover the bulk of the cost, there may have been an element of "pay to display" involved - or at least perceived to be involved.

So just because someone died by suicide and they are not included on a specific memorial does not automatically mean they were excluded for that reason and that reason only.

Cheers,
Peter

[Skipman]

Hi Peter, many thanks for your usuual excellent reply.

 

My friend has a name on a WW1 memorial in a church yard and two possible soldiers, but doesn't have enough info to say which it should be. One KIA, one suicide after war.

 

Mike

[PRC]

8 minutes ago, Skipman said:

One KIA, one suicide after war.

So depending on "when" after the war that soldier might even have missed the name gathering and finalisation of the list part of the process. And some parishes in my experience are very strict in sticking to the 11th November 1918 last day for inclusion.

Worth checking local papers and the civil records - if the KiA had a memorial service in the relevant parish church and family were still resident on the 1921 census then has to be odds on that they are the name remembered here. And a report of the coroners inquest on the suicide, (more likely local newspapers for the relevant location) may make it clearer how close their ties to the area were, particularly if family identified the body \ were present at the inquest. Meanwhile reports on the work of the local committee, notices of submission of the list to the stone mason \ wood carver, and unveiling may give a timeline against which the chances of it being the suicide commemorated can then be evaluated.

Cheers,
Peter

[Skipman]

Many thanks again Peter. That's great and will put that to him. If I get more info will post.

 

Mike

[Knotty]

Good evening @Skipman

Slightly tangential to your issue, we have a WW1 suicide burial at one of our nearby churches. He was a decorated officer who never got over the loss of many of his men. He was initially buried outside of the boundary wall of the church in 1920, with a marked grave but with no inscription. The boundary wall has subsequently been removed, due to graveyard expansion and his grave now within the graveyard and has a name plaque, but no CWGC headstone, although they agreed to provide one, the church diocese refuse to allow its placement.

John