The Unveiling of the War Memorial - 100 Years On.

At 3.45 p.m. a procession of ex-sailors and soldiers marched from the Eton Wick and Boveney Institute to the cemetery. The members of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers being under the charge of Mr S. Binfield, a late sergeant of the R.A.F….. on arrival at the cemetery the men took up positions facing the Memorial that was draped with a Union Jack. At the four corners stood a special guard comprised of Stoker R. Bond R.N., Petty Officer A. C.Percy R.N., Company Quartermaster Sergeant G. Attride, Rifle Brigade, and Sergeant H. Balm R.A.F. There followed a service and hymn singing opened by the Band of the 2nd Life Guards. the Eton College Provost, Dr. James, gave a long address and the Vicar read out the names of 33 who had given their lives and whose names were on the Memorial.

Driving rain and a strong wind did little to detract from the occasion. During the address the Provost of Eton said:

The memory of all mankind short: pass by 80 years from now - one human lifetime - and every man who fought in the Great War will have rejoined their comrades whom lie and we honour today Pass yet one other lifetime and how many living who ever set eyes on one who fought. That may be so and will be so, but what does it matter. Nothing can make undone the brave deeds that were done, nothing can wipe out the sacrifice that were offered by these men. This stone shall be a memorial to our generations outlasting, we hope many successions of human lives. Yet in is itself subject to accident, violence and decay. Again, I say what does it matter if human memory is brief and human records, even graven in stone are perishable, there is a memory that is eternal. There is one who says, “Yet they may forget, yet will I not forget”.

East Face

Henry Ashman  1993  21/08/1915  Gallipoli

Cyril Ashman  746  26/10/1917  Passchendaele

George Baldwin  16671  24/04/1918  Amiens 

George Bolton  7993  24/09/1915  Loos

Alfred Brown  11811  31/07/1917  Ypres

Ernest Brown  T/202287  24/10/1917  Passchendaele

Angus Bruce  19160   27/03/1918  Arras

Thomas Bryant  9813  11/11/1914  Ypres

Fredrick Buckland  G/3615  17/12/1914  illness

Arthur Bunce  39794  17/07/1917  Ypres

Albert Caesar  12472  01/09/1914  Villers

North Face

Frank Church  3760  19/07/1916  Somme

John Clark  630936  23/04/1917  Roeux

Fred Colbourn  185017  31/10/1918  illness

Horace Dobson  32908  15/07/1918  illness

Charles Godwin  2556  08/06/1918  Arras

Charles Hammerton  5335  09/10/1916  Somme

Henry Hill  K/18991  03/09/1917  Chatham air raid

Robert Hobrough  40782  30/09/1917  Passchendaele

Arthur Iremonger  7937  25/12/1915  Loos

Ernest Jordan  33180  20/08/1916  Iraq

Charles Miles  K/25314  09/07/1917  HMS Vanguard
Harry Quarterman  7570  30/10/1918  Asfold POW camp

West Face

Henry Moss  M2/097873  21/10/1918  Roisel

James Newell  1232  11/04/1917  Arras

Joseph Newell  9534  24/05/1917  Turkey POW Camp

Walter Payne  12050  12/03/1916  Ploegsteert Woods

George Percy  34891  15/04/1918  Outtersteene Ridge

Herbert Pithers  24307  28/02/1917  Ancre

Arthur Richardson  10060  02/05/1915  Gallipoli

Joseph Springford  94017  15/02/1918  Passchendaele

Isaac Springford  197731  02/07/1918  Orpington

Albert Stallwood  4176  24/10/1918  Wassigny

Peter Knight  30958  26/10/1915  Aegean Sea

This is an extract from Their Names Shall Be Carved in Stone  

and published here with grateful thanks to the author Frank Bond.