Programme

Our 2023 programme: 23 Feb: '1926' - our speaker is our Chairman, Martyn Lockwood. 23 Mar: Annual General Meeting. 27 Apr: 'John Ray' - Jennifer Rowland. 25 May: Napoleonic Invasion Plans - Neil Wiffen. 22 Jun: 'Jersey under the Jackboot: the occupation of Jersey during WW2' - Patrick Griggs. 27 Jul: 'The Life and Times of William Byrd (c1540-1623): A Local History' - Andrew Smith. 26 Oct: 'The Prison at Hill Hall' - Anne Padfield. 23 Nov: Pre-Christmas meeting. Talk to be confirmed. Admission: Members £1, Non-members £5 Annual Membership: £15 (Family: £30)

Monday 4 August 2014

Remember

Inscribed on the wall of the
Ongar War Memorial Medical Centre
Tuesday 4 August 1914
11pm
The moment when the Great War began

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time"

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.
PURNELL A.
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). 

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.