Shaw


Memorial

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ID:WB015
UKNIWM:9091
Location:St Mary's Church
OS Map Ref:SU475683
Description:Stone cross
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Inscription:
Front (western) face
Remember thankfully and with pride the brave men of Shaw and Donnington who laid down their lives for King and Country in the Great War 1914 - 1918

Southern Face
1915
W G Admans
W H Boyles
A C Gathorne-Hardy
C J Middleton
F Westall
H A Turner
1916
H Adnams
C W Bloomfield
J Butler
C E Campfield
H W Plater
A Popejoy
K Forbes-Robertson
S Swatton

Eastern Face
1917
A H Admans
A F Adnams
G Adnams
E H Asker
B H Abdy-Fellowes
E Brown
W T H Maslin
A Nailor
F J Nutley
W Rufey
W Sanders
W W Wootton
J B Goddard

Northern Face
1918
W H F Farquhar
W F Whiley
E J Wootton
1919
F Ayres


What the papers said:

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Shaw cum Donnington War Memorial – Dedication Service, 1 Dec 1918.

Newbury Weekly News, 7 December 1918

 

Memorial to the Fallen At Shaw-cum-Donnington

Impressive Unveiling Ceremony


“Remember Thankfully and with Pride the men of Shaw-cum-Donnington who laid down their lives for King and Country in the Great War 1914-19__.”
Such is the dignified and fully appreciative inscription inscribed on the base of the massive Cornish memorial cross erected in the churchyard of Shaw-cum-Donnington, which was unveiled with simple yet impressive ceremony on Friday (All Saints Day). The cross is of granite, carved in symbolic fashion, standing on a square base, on which is inscribed the names of the local men who have fallen in the war. It is a worthy memorial, which will stand as a reminder to future generations of the brave men who fought and fell in the great struggle for liberty and freedom. The cost was provided by public subscription in the parish.
Memorial Service

 

The unveiling was preceded by a memorial service in the parish church at three o’clock, attended by a large number of parishioners and the school-children. The service, which was an appropriate form, was conducted by the Rector (Rev W Kingsley Kefford) and included the singing of the hymn “Ten thousand times ten thousand,” the chanting of Psalm 46, “God is our refuge and strength,” the reading of the lesson from Wisdom iii,6, “But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,” the hymn “The saints of God, their conflict past,” the offering of special prayers, and address by the Rector, a bidding prayer finishing with the Lord’s Prayer, the hymn, “For all thy saints,” the Blessing, and the playing of the Dead March in “Saul,” the latter very finely rendered by Mr Ernest Watson, the organist. The Rector recited the names of those who had fallen, and whose names were recorded on the memorial –
W G Adnams, W H Boyles, A C Gathorne Hardy, C H Middleton, F Westall, H A Turner, H Adnams, C W Bloomfield, J Butler, C E Camfield, N W Plater, A Popejoy, K Forbes Robertson, S Swatton, A H Adnams, G Adnams, B H Abdy Fellowes, W T H Maslin, F J Nutley, W Sanders, A F Adnams, E H Asker, E Brown, A Nailor, W Rufey, W W Wooton, A M Shelton, S E Sheltron, Sir Walter Farquhar.

 

“Remember”

 

The Rector’s address was based on the words, “Remember” (Ecclesiastes, xii, 1). This word, he said, contained the whole object of their service. Such were called the whole object of their service. Such were called memorial services, but they were not intended in any way to benefit those who were gone. For them was the crown of victory, and nothing could be added to its lustre. But by remembering their noble deeds it was for them, for whom they died, to so lives that they had not lived and died in vain. There was subtle meaning in the words “let the dead bury their dead.” Those who merely sat down under their grief, and used not the grand qualities of the departed as a rule whereby they regulated their future life, were dead to all intents and purposes. The living would be up and doing, carrying on the work of those who had done their part. And as they remembered, the chief points which rose before their mental vision and claimed attention were three out of many – Sympathy, Gratitude, Pride.

 

Sympathy

 

First sympathy with those to whom the fallen were bound by closest ties of relationship and affection. Theirs was the deepest sorrow: “The heart knoweth its own bitterness.” Much talk will not sweeten the bitterness; to stand by with respect for their grief, the silent grasp of the hand, speaks louder than words. If words were spoken, let them but recall the fact that although they were gone beyond their love, they had reached a love grater than theirs, they dwell for ever in the loving presence of  Almighty God, the loving Father of all, and that although the gulf between them seemed to them so awfully deep, the veil so impenetrable, there was no separating line of veil in His sight between the living and those they erroneously called dead, for all live in Him.

 

Gratitude

 

The lives that they commemorated, with all of their more distant brothers, were given that they might live. To them they owed a debt of gratitude insomuch that no alien foe had handed in their shores, and that the din and deviation of battle had been kept far away. Who could look upon their smiling village beauty and compare it with Belgium and Flanders, without a burst of gratitude to those who had kept it so. In contemplating their peaceful country let them never forget but remember the debt owed to their memory by those who threw the world into mourning. Ours the debt of gratitude, theirs the debt of making good. If we forget that, we forget our heroes and for what they fought; Justice. They had shown that there is something more precious than life, Honour, on which the future of England and the world at large depends. The present generation of their enemies had no idea of Honour and Justice. In gratitude to our fallen they had to be so taught that their generations yet unborn should be as distinct from their forefathers as they are from us to-day. The lesson will have to be well taught and thoroughly learned, otherwise we should have treated Duty, Patriotism and Sacrifice, as scraps of paper.

 

Pride

 

If to be proud were ever fitting a nation, it might well be felt by all Englishmen to-day. Pride, not in themselves, but pride in the magnificent courage of those who, having fought the good fight, were now resting from their labours. Never had a war higher aims, never was a war waged with such calmness and lack of hatred. No “Mafeking” night had marred their victorious progress, but onward, ever onward, in faith, patience and cheerfulness, their men had marched, and they at home had “kept in step.”

 

Proudly they thought of those plain graves in Flanders, France, and by the side of the Dardanelles, marking each one the sacrifice of a life bright with promise, which had gained a brighter reward. But their pride did not cease with valour alone. It was a pride for the moral quality of it all. The devotion of men for officers, and officers for men, put the valour in the shade. Their officers never drove, they led, and the men followed without question. It was our pride that they had fought as gentlemen, not as brutes. When the history of this war was read in days to come, there would be no foul-stained pages by us, such as degraded officers and men of the German army had written. They had disgraced the honourable profession of a soldiers, and turned it into that of a common ruffian. In their barbarity they recognised neither age nor sex: they had no fear of God, nor pity for man. Though we may forget there was for them the stern reckoning. For the cry of a wronged people had gone up to the ear of the God of Hosts. We had just cause for pride in those to whom this was impossible. Our men had had another ideal bred in them from ages past, in whose bones was bred a love of fairness, justice and freedom of care for the weak and defenceless – in a word the fear of God. In this contemplation let them never forget, but ever Remember.

 

The Unveiling

 

At the close of the service, the congregation, together with the school-children, walked in procession to the memorial, which was surrounded by a large national flag, lent by Mr G J Watts, and the same that was used at the unveiling of the Falkland Memorial. The Union Jack was hoisted close by The Hon A E Gathorne Hardy, addressing those assembled as friends and neighbours, said they were all united in a common purpose, rich and poor, each and all, in erecting this memorial of those who had fallen in the cause of national freedom. For reasons which they would understand he was unable to express their feelings adequately; it was almost an occasion when silence would be more eloquent than words. They had commemorated on that pedestal the names of those who had fallen, and others would be added. They were now standing on the threshold of brighter conditions. If that be so let them never forget those who had made these possible. It might be thought that no graven stone was necessary to preserve in their hearts the names of those which had been inscribed. That was so, but in every country, in every age, it had been the custom to honour the memory of heroes who had died, in the hope that when their children and children’s children asked “What mean ye by these stones?” they might point with pride and thankfulness to this memorial, and inspire them by the example of those brave men to emulate their courage, their patriotism, their devotion to duty.

 

The memorial was unveiled, and Bugler A E Harvey, RNAS, blew “The last post,” its sad and solemn strains being very impressive. Mrs Gathorne Hardy laid a large wreath of laurel at the foot of the memorial, and then the school-children, with their teachers, filed past, each laying a posy of bright autumn flowers around the pedestal. It was a sympathetic act of appreciation to the brave men commemorated, in some cases by those who were making a personal offering in memory of a loved one.War Memorial. – The Dedication of the War Memorial took place on Saturday last in the picturesque churchyard of Midgham in memory of those from the parish who laid down their lives in the Great War. The cross, which is of granite, has been erected on a beautiful site close to the church on consecrated ground, bearing the words, “To the Glory of God and in honoured memory of the men of this parish who fell in the Great War, 1914-1918,” in letters of lead, giving the names. The service commenced at 3 o’clock in the church, where most of the ex-service men and parishioners had gathered. Suitable hymns were sung, and appropriate lessons read by Mr R J Black. The Rev H Rees Mogg officiated, assisted by the Rev H Pickles (late of Thatcham), who preached a very impressive sermon. During the singing of the hymn, “On the resurrection morning,” the clergymen, followed by the congregation, slowly left the church and proceeded to the cross, over which had been hanging the Union Jack. The ceremony of unveiling was performed by Mrs Black, after which prayers were offered, and the hymn, “Peace, perfect peace,” was sung by the choir and congregation, the service being concluded by the Blessing and the rendering of the Dead March in “Saul,” by Mr Vallis, the organist.


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 Died this day:
28 March 1918
Charles Wing
Lambourn

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