Great War soldier silhouette on Castle Green as a temporary war memorial.
At 11.00 am on 11th November 1918 the guns finally fell silent on the Western Front and the Great “War to end all Wars” was formally over. Sadly, as we all know, a Second World War was to follow all too soon and there have been many other conflicts since.
108 years on from the original Armistice Day, the villagers of Sulgrave gathered on Castle Green to remember all who perished in the two wars and other conflicts. As the village does not have an outside war memorial a silhouette version of a Great War soldier was placed on the Green to form a focus for memories during the two minutes silence and at the foot of which wreaths of poppies were laid.
Photographs of this event with information on those from Sulgrave who lost their can be seen on the next page.
Click on “read the rest of this entry.
The “Last Post” is sounded
After the two minutes silence, the rousing notes of “Reveille”.
Laurence Binyon’s timeless poem “For the Fallen” is recited.
Wreaths are laid at the foot of the “Unknown Soldier”.
The ceremony concluded with the reading of Eleanor Farjeon’s moving poem, written in memory of her close friend the poet Edward Thomas, killed in the Battle of Arras on Easter Monday, 9th April 1917…….
“In the last letter I had from France
You thanked me for the silver Easter egg
which you had hidden in the box of apples
You liked to munch before all other fruit.
You found the egg, the Monday before Easter
And said “I will praise Easter Monday eve
It was such a lovely morning”. Then you spoke
Of the coming battle and said “This is the eve
Good-bye, and May I have a letter soon.
That Easter Monday was a day for praise
It was such a lovely morning. In our garden
We sowed our earliest seeds, and in the orchard
The apple bud was ripe. It was the eve.
There are three letters you will not get.”
Finally, I have some more information on Leslie Hancock, killed in the Second World War and commemorated on the above plaque on a grave just inside the Churchyard entrance gate but not mentioned on the church war memorial. Sally Murray-White, a former Sulgrave resident and member of the once numerous Gascoigne family, kindly sent me the following email:
“I have found out the following information.
In September 1942 a Vicker’s Wellington aircraft with an aircrew of six, took off on air operation over Bremen in Germany. The Wellington was lost at sea off the Frisian Islands in The Netherlands, taking the lives of the aircrew. The remains of three of the crew were recovered and laid to rest in local cemeteries. One of the six airmen who perished was Sergeant Bernard Leslie Hancock, son of Charles and Frances Hancock of Castle Thorpe, Buckinghamshire and husband of Hilda Hancock.
Commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Death : 14/9/1942
Monument : Runnymede Memorial. Plot: Panel 84
Sergeant Hancock is remembered on the Hanslope War Memorial Roll of Honour 1939-45
I am aware of the gravestone near the gate opposite The Forge. I think that Bernard Leslie Hancock was a cousin of my father, Dennis Gascoigne. Sergeant Hancock’s mother, Frances Sarah, was George Gascoigne’s sister. George was my grandfather and lived and worked at The Forge in Church Street. The gravestones of William and Mary Louisa Gascoigne, my great grandparents, are also just inside the gate.
Sally Murray-White”
I am indebted to Sally for these additional facts about Leslie Hancock and the Gascoigne family.
Colin Wootton
