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| Inscribed on the wall of the Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre |
Tuesday 4 August 1914
11pm
The moment when the Great War began
Monday, 4 August 2014
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time"
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| Lights Out An hour when a nation remembers |
Comyns Owers
An extract from the High Country History Group Journal No. 34 (October 2009).
Whilst at St Margaret’s, Stanford Rivers recently I came
across a gravestone in the corner of the churchyard. The inscription
read:
In
loving memory
of
Margaret Elizabeth Owers
Who died April 17th 1928
In her 63rd year
Also of
Comyns Owers
Missing in Egypt Nov 25th 1917
Aged 21years
Also Comyns
Husband of the above
Who died Sep 28th 1939
Aged 78 years.
It was the part of the inscription about Comyns Owers,
missing in Egypt in 1917, that caught my eye.
Had he died on active service?
His name does not appear on the war memorial in St Margaret’s, but a
search on the Commonwealth War Graves site revealed that Comyns Owers was a
Private (no. 49346) in the 161st Company of the Machine Gun Corps
and died on the 25 November 1917. He has
no known grave and his name is commemorated on the Basra War Memorial in Iraq.[1]
His name appears however on the war memorial at St Mary’s
church, High Ongar.
In the 1881 Census a John Owers (born 1832) was described
as a Baker and Licensee living at the Green Man Public House Toot Hill. He was also listed as a Farmer with 10 acres
and employing 3 men. He had a son, Comyns Owers (born 1862) who was described
in the census as a ‘Bakers Son.’
In the 1891 Census, Comyns Owers is married to Margaret and
is living in High Street, Chipping Ongar where he is the Licensee of the Bell
Inn. He has 1 child and employs 3
servants.
In the 1901 Census Comyns and his wife are living at
Stanford Rivers, and he is described as a Baker. They have three more children, including a
son, Comyns, born in 1887 in Stanford Rivers and who was to die on active
service in 1917. According to Scott in
his history of Stanford Rivers, Comyns remained as the licensee of the Green
Man until 1910 or thereabouts. By 1912 a
Mrs Emma Comyns is shown as the Licensee.
Why Comyns Owers name is missing from the war memorial at
St Margaret’s is not known.
Martyn Lockwood
[1] The Basra Memorial commemorates more than 40,500
members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia
from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose graves are not
known.
Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre Roll of Honour
Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre Roll of
Honour
The Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre
occupies the site of the former Ongar War Memorial Hospital. The present building, which houses the Ongar
Health Centre (the town’s G P Surgery) was opened very recently although the building
itself was completed in 2012.
In the Reception area of the Centre is a new
Roll of Honour, which was dedicated in May 2012. I understand that it may be viewed by prior
appointment.
The former Ongar War Memorial Hospital was
opened as a cottage hospital in August 1933, some 15 years after the end of the
First World War.
Inside the former building was a Roll of
Honour, now preserved in the Essex Record Office [ERO A10815].
The document contains a list of
several men who fell in the district and is arranged by parish. Those parishes included are: Ongar, Shelley,
High Ongar, High Laver, Willingale, Greensted, Kelvedon [Hatch], Stanford
Rivers, Stapleford Tawney, Theydon Mount, Stapleford Abbots, Stondon Massey,
Lambourne, Fyfield, Berners Roding, Navestock, Moreton, Little Laver, Abbess
Roding, Beauchamp Roding, Doddinghurst, Blackmore, Norton Mandeville, and
Bobbingworth.
The lists are by far from
complete, contain duplications of commemorated names and incorrectly spelt
names. This is probably because records
were not carefully checked some years after the close of the Great War. (War
Memorials erected later than the immediate years after the conflict are known
to contain mistakes e.g. Maldon).
Turning to the exterior of the
present building, there is a mural of poppies which include the words:
“At the going down of the
sun and in the morning, we will remember them. When you go home,
tell them of us and say for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”
It is a dedication to the people
of Ongar who sacrificed their lives in the First World War and subsequent
conflicts.
Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: A Day Trip to Flanders
Blackmore Area Local History: Blackmore: A Day Trip to Flanders: A visit made on Friday 6 November 2009. Left: Essex Farm Cemetery ‘In Flanders Fields’ is one of the most famous poems penned during the F...
Stanford Rivers: First World War Fallen
The High Country History Group is
preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a
comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four
parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.
Martyn Lockwood, its author,
would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive,
of those listed below.
The War Memorial tablet for
Stanford Rivers is in St Margaret’s Church and was dedicated in December 1922.
It includes the following names:
-
George Aldridge
-
William Aldridge
-
William Attridge
-
James Brown
-
John Cable
-
Mark Cable
-
Richard J Crow(e)
-
Ernest S Doe
-
William Downham
-
Frank J Gardiner
-
George Green
-
William King M.M.
-
Arthur Knight
-
William E Millbank
-
Arthur Newman
-
Cecil A Oakley
-
Ernest Staines
-
Frank Staines
-
Thomas Staines
-
Francis A Thorogood
In addition the following are the names of men born in Stanford Rivers who were
killed in WWI and who are not mentioned on the war memorial.
-
Comyns Owers
-
William Ernest
East
-
Percy Fincham
-
Robert George
Turner
-
Charles Saville
-
Charles John
Penson
-
John Reed
-
Frederick Charles
Talbot
-
Frederick Butcher
-
Alfred Douglas
Clements
-
Edwin Staines
-
Wilfred John
Tarling
Theydon Mount: First World War Fallen
The High Country History Group is
preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a
comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four
parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.
Martyn Lockwood, its author,
would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive,
of those listed below.
The memorial to those who died in
both wars is situated on the south wall of the nave of St Michael’s
church. In addition there are two
Commonwealth war graves in the churchyard (2nd World War).
There is also a wooden board in
the nave giving the names of old boys of Theydon Mount school who fought in
1914-1918.
Those named on the War Memorial
are:
-
John Coller
-
Walter George Freshwater
-
Hugh Meikle Miller
-
Henry Joseph Perry
-
Frederick Town
-
Thomas William Ward
-
Stanley Thomas West
-
James Bushnell
The Roll of Honour reads:
Roll of Honour / To
Commemorate / the names of the men / of this parish / and Old Boys of this
School / who fought for / England and Liberty / in the Great War 1914 – 1918.
Bonner L G
Bushnell J
Coller J
Coller W
Freshwater E E
Freshwater W G
Groves G
Hammond W
Hartgrove H
Latchford W
Miller H M
Parker W
Perry C
Perry G
Perry H J
Perry G
Prior A
Prior A
Raby D
Raby H
Starling A
Starling A W
Starling J
Stubbings F G
Stubbings W
Summers S W
Tarling J
Tarling A S
Town F
Tricker B A
Tricker W
Turner H
Tyler C W
Ward T W
West J W
West S T
Stapleford Tawney: First World War Fallen
The High Country History Group is
preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a
comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four
parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.
Martyn Lockwood, its author,
would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive,
of those listed below.
The memorial is on the south wall
of the nave of St Mary’s church. It was
unveiled on Sunday 7th November, 1920, by Sir Drummond Cunliffe
Smith.
In addition there is a board
giving the names of the former pupils of Stapleford Tawney school who served
between 1914-1918.
Those named on the War
Memorial are:
-
Arthur Godsafe
-
Henry Hartgrove
-
Robert Mepsted
-
Albert Starling
-
Arthur William
Starling
-
Walter Stubbings
-
Malcolm Sworder
-
Norman Sworder
There is also an entry for
George Herbert Fish who died in the Second World War.
In the tower at St Mary’s, is a
board showing the names of those men from Stapleford Tawney who fought in the
Great War. Interestingly there are no
names beginning A – F. It shows the
names of those who survived the conflict as well as those who were killed.
However the names of the two Sworder brothers are missing.
The Roll of Honour contains
the following names:
Stapleford Tawney
Roll of Honour
TO COMMEMORATE
THE NAMES OF THE MEN OF
THIS PARISH WHO FOUGHT FOR
ENGLAND AND LIBERTY
IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918
|
GODSAFE A.
|
STAINES R.
|
|
GOULD S.
|
STARLING A.
|
|
GREEN W.
|
STARLING A.W.
|
|
HAMMOND W.
|
STARLING J.
|
|
HARTGROVE H.
|
STUBBINGS J.
|
|
HILLS F.
|
STUBBINGS T.
|
|
MEPSTED R.
|
STUBBINGS W.
|
|
MEPSTED H.
|
SURRIDGE F.J.
|
|
MOORE H. (M.C.)
|
SURRIDGE T.F.
|
|
PERRY J.
|
SURRIDGE T.
|
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PURNELL A.
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TUCKER J.
|
|
PURNELL W.
|
TUCKER W.
|
|
SARLING H.
|
TURNER H.
|
|
SARLING J.
|
WEST T.W.
|
|
SNOW F.H.
|
WHITBREAD W.
|
Greensted: First World War Fallen
The High Country History Group is
preparing a book to commemorate the beginning of the First World War with a
comprehensive record of those who died and are remembered from the four
parishes of Greensted, Stanford Rivers, Stapleford Tawney and Theydon Mount.
Martyn Lockwood, its author,
would be interested to hear from relatives, especially if photographs survive,
of those listed below.
Curiously there is no memorial in
the church to those parishioners of Greensted who died in either war. The reason is unknown.
However the names are inscribed
on a Roll of Honour once in the foyer of now demolished Ongar War Memorial
Hospital. (The original is now in the Essex Record Office).
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| Roll of Honour previously in Ongar War Memorial Hospital |
The Roll records four names of
men from Greensted who died in World War One:
- J. Argent
- E. Crisp
- C.H. East
- E.G. East
These are: James Argent, Ernest
Crisp, Edward George East and possibly Charles Herbert East.
Saturday, 2 August 2014
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