Roll's of Honour

I do have a blog written for this week which along with another two churches gave me another three blogs to write but last week due to circumstances beyond my control I could not visit and more. On Thursday England went into a four week Lock-down which means I cannot go anywhere till the 2nd December so I thought of when else could I write.

As it is going to be Remembrance day on the 11th next week and normally we have a Remembrance Sunday I thought this week I would show some of the Rolls of Honour I have come across in the churches I have visited. Every church I visit I look for the roll and get a photo. I will also get photos of the war graves so there is a record and they are not forgotten. Now most Villages in the UK have a memorial to those who died in the two great wars. some are quite elaborate and a stand proud in the village for all to see but if you go into the church you will find another listing the names of the local people who died. If you look though any of the churches I have featured you should find a Roll of Honour shown, below are a few of the ones I have seen.

Above is the one from World War One you will find in St Mary Church in Cholsey. I always thought they never had one till I saw this.

One of the names on the memorial is H.J.Abdey his name is at the bottom of this commonwealth war grave in the churchyard, the name at the top is that of his brother who is not listed even though you can see he died within a few days of the start of WWI. While at camp he was taken ill and died before going to war. He was given a War grave but is not listed as one killed in action

Underneath is a second plaque listing the fallen in World War Two. Placed there after the war. Not as elaborate but then no one thought there would be a second war.

There is a small stone block on the Forty (village Green) that I feel was placed there as an afterthought and remembers the dead of all the wars.

Go to Aldworth nor many miles away and you will find a Roll of Honour on the East end wall of the church under the Window

This Roll is in Clifton Hampden Church near Abingdon. Out side you can also find the memorials to a couple of other decorated men from WWII

This roll at St Michael Llanfihangel-Nant-Melan is typical of the ones you find in Welsh churches

Landrindod Wells on the other hand has a chapel dedicated to the men who gave their lives but then its a major town and the War Memorial shows hundreds of men on it.

The church also has this stunning Stained glass window also..

This one is in Rhulen a country church in Wales

You will find this in the porch at Crikadar a village in the hills above the Wye Valley

This one is on the wall of the village pub in Denchworth Oxfordshire

This memorial is in Hinton Waldhurst, the plaque at the bottom shows the name of Airey Neave who survived the war after escaping Coldiz Castle a notorious POW camp. He was murdered by the IRA outside the House of Commons in London where he was MP. I think his name was a worthy addition

I will leave you with this shot of the Commonwealth War Grave of Marine Dale Edward Gostick who was killed by a Mine when his Viking Armoured Truck hit a mine in Afghanistan. He will be remembered like the other fallen from the Wars on Remembrance Day