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The
Town Memorial
QUALIFICATIONS FOR
INCLUSION
Common Misconceptions
1. That if a casualty be commemorated on our Town Memorial she or he
cannot be commemorated on a war memorial elsewhere. This belief
results from confusion between government commemoration (see
Commonwealth War Graves Commission - CWGC) and civic and/or
community commemoration. See here for a fuller explanation, with
examples.
2. That the War Memorial Committee of the Town Council in 1924
somehow knew from some central official catalogue who to
include on the Town Memorial. The names were in fact gathered
from canvassing workplaces and schools and from advertising in
Dover for nominations. Consequently many of those who qualified,
by virtue of their connection with the town were not included.
In 1934 a new panel
commemorating some of those people omitted was placed on the
memorial (the War Memorial Committee had first considered doing
so in 1925, but there were insufficient funds available). Further additions were attached on 3 December 2000. There
are, nevertheless, many people who qualify who remain uncommemorated on the memorial There
was in place
by Dover Town Council a procedure
whereby every three years new qualifying names can be placed by
request on the memorial. The first of such updates happened on
Armistice Day 2009. The second and final one occurred on 29
June 2013.
Criteria and Guidelines
We have never seen published a definitive
list of qualifications for inclusion on Dover Town Memorial;
however it is possible to construct some guidelines from
research through various archives and into the biographies of
our Fallen. This construction was written in January 2012.
1. Casualties may be and are commemorated on
other war memorials as well as our Town Memorial.
a) Civic Memorials. Our Town Memorial is a civic memorial,
erected and maintained by a local authority. Casualties may
appear on any number of civic memorials, usually with the
proviso that they have a connection with that place. Thus very
many of the casualties already on our Town Memorial are
commemorated elsewhere.
Examples include:
Walter Tull, commemorated on
the parish memorial at River, town memorial in Folkestone, and
Glasgow
Frank Balding, commemorated on the town memorial at Louth,
Lincolnshire
Peter Mello, commemorated on the town memorial at Bexhill-on-Sea,
Sussex
Walter Corteen, commemorated on the town memorial at King's
Lynn, Norfolk
William Foreman, commemorated on the town memorial at Whistable
Charles Laing, commemorated on the city memorial at Canterbury
Casualties on our Town Memorial may also appear on civic
memorials overseas.
An example is:
Edward King commemorated on
Brant County Memorial, Ontario, Canada
b) Community Memorials. Casualties on our Town Memorial may also
appear on any number of community war memorials. These are
erected and maintained by individuals and by community groups -
eg work-place, church, military, school, social club, etc. This
website, Dover's Virtual Memorial, created and run by The Dover
War Memorial Project falls into this category.
Examples include:
Daniel Wyborn, commemorated on
the SECR memorial at the Marine Station, and the Salem Baptist
memorial (note, others on the Town Memorial are also
commemorated on the SECR)
Tommy Eaves, commemorated on memorials at the Deal Parochial
School, St Martin's school, Dover Boys' Grammar, and Marjon
College in Plymouth (as well as the civic memorial of Deal)
Thomas Bidgood, commemorated at Haileybury School, Hertfordshire
(as well as the civic memorial at Shepherdswell)
Keith Gillman, commemorated on the Foxley-Norris wall at the
Battle of Britain memorial, Capel-le-Ferne and the Battle of
Britain memorial on the Victoria Embankment, London (as well as
the River civic memorial)
Albert Bourner, commemorated on the memorial at St Martin of
Tours church, Dover (as well as the River civic memorial)
Some of our casualties have memorials dedicated to them alone:
Examples include:
Arthur Leyland Harrison VC - Roundham Head, near Paignton, Devon
Walter Tull - Sixfields, Northampton
2. Casualties do not have to have been killed in action or died
from wounds gained in action to be commemorated.
Many of the casualties on our Town Memorial died through illness
or accident.
Examples include:
Percy Maxted, accidentally pulled a lathe onto his head, buried
Charlton
William Piddington, aged 53, died after an operation in London,
buried St James
John Darwall, accidentally shot himself, buried Kensall Green
Edward Gatehouse, died from tuberculosis, buried Charlton
Charles Wood, died from double pneumonia following influenza,
buried Buckland
3. Casualties have a connection with the town but need not have
been resident or had their family home in Dover when they died
Examples include:
Walter Tull, who never lived in the town, having grown up in
Folkestone and London, but two of whose sisters and his
step-parents were living at River when the Town Memorial was
erected
Arthur Leyland Harrison VC, who was a scholar at Dover College
between 1895 and 1900. He was born in Torquay and his parents
lived in London.
Gordon Keightley, pupil of the Boys' Grammar between 1907-1909
Peter Mello, Dover College pupil living in Sussex at time of
death
Edward King, who had emigrated with his family to Canada
Cyril Coe, commemorated 2000, whose family had lived Wales after
their home was destroyed at the beginning of World War II
Nelson Cork, commemorated 2009, whose family was in Palestine
where he was stationed on service
Notes
In 1934 the War Memorial Committee turned
down nominations for eight men "who were non-residents or who
had only a remote connection with Dover".
Connections include birth, employment, schooling, relations, etc
CWGC records on their website do not necessarily reflect the address of the
casualty or her or his family at the time of death. Many families or next-of-kin had moved by
the time the records were collected; many bereaved spouses had remarried.
4. People who died between or after the wars through service may
be commemorated.
Examples include:
William Dixon, killed in Ireland in 1920
Nelson Cork, accidentally killed by army truck in Palestine in
1938
Charles Vigor, died 1921 from gas poisoning
Walter Mills, died 1922, from tuberculosis
William Oram, died 1946, died from tuberculosis
Notes
Arthur Davis, commemorated on the Memorial, died
in 1921 from rheumatic fever and valvular heart
disease which his army records state were not the result of
service. William Dixon's nomination was turned down in
1924, although he had served all through the Great War and had
been killed on service, as his death was not attributable to the
Great War. He was added to the Memorial in 2009.
Other civic memorials also commemorate deaths from subsequent
conflicts
Examples of such memorials include:
Ashford
Margate
5. Women and civilians have not been commemorated
Examples of servicewomen include:
Margaret Care, died 1918, Women's Royal Naval Service
Florence Johncock, died 1918, Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
Helena Richardson (Barbara), died 1942, Auxiliary Territorial
Service
Notes
At unveiling, the dedication on the Town Memorial was to "Men".
In 1934 the nomination of a woman for the War Memorial was
turned down on the ground of "for whose name the Memorial
is not appropriate". In 1949 the
dedication on the memorial was changed to "People". Nevertheless,
servicemen remain the only people commemorated on the Town
Memorial.
Examples of Great War civilians include:
Civilians who died while serving
Sydney Holbourn, killed 1916 in the Great Munitions Explosion,
Faversham
John Fitzsimons, killed 1917 while testing a new biplane
Edith Johncock, died 1920 in Nazareth, nurse with Edinburgh
Missionary Society, served throughout Great War, including as
PoW, awarded Red Cross
Civilians killed in raids
Gertrude Boorman, killed in 1918 by shellfire
Henry Long, died 1917, after being injured in an air raid
Notes
In 1924 the nomination of a civilian was turned down without
reason. Nevertheless, civilians, men and women, were the fifth service, vital to war
work on the home front and keeping "the Home Fires Burning". They
too gave their lives for their country.
The then Town Clerk had a list of the civilians killed in raids
in his documents when the Memorial was being erected. A possible
explanation for their omission, reading between the lines of
reports and events, is that the finances for the erection of the
War Memorial were very limited, to the extent that it may have
been "unveiled in debt"; equally there would appear to have been
great difficulties in reaching a conclusive list of names by the
necessary deadline for the sculptor.
With the exception of Francis Hall, aged 7, who is remembered on
a community plaque inside the Dover Baptist Church, our Dovorian
Great War civilian casualties are not commemorated anywhere. Currently,
were it not for the work of The Dover War Memorial Project,
these casualties would now be completely forgotten.
An example of a civic memorial listing Great War civilian
casualties is:
Margate
There were many more areas with Second World War civilian
casualties. Civic memorials also commemorate them.
Examples are:
Dymchurch
Biddendon
Lydd
Benenden
Margate
Ashford
Sheppey
Casualties of World War II in Dover are listed in a Book of
Remembrance. The listing includes women and civilians. The Book
is held at Dover Museum. It is not on public display but is
viewable by appointment.
Listing in the Book does not preclude commemoration on our Town
Memorial.
Examples of service names in the Book and on the Town Memorial
are:
Ron Adley
John Bones
Alfred Craven
Alfred Moseling
Donald Halke
Jack Miriams
6. Government commemoration (Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- CWQC), is not the definitive authority for whether a casualty
may be included on a civic or community war memorial
There are six member countries of the CWGC - UK, Australia,
Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India.) The function of
the CWGC is to record and maintain the last resting place of a
casualty. Where no grave is identifiable, the CWGC allocates the casualty to a
cenotaph for the missing, for example, the Menin Gate.
People commemorated by the CWGC do not correspond fully or
exactly with people commemorated on civic memorials.
Reasons include:
i) civic and community memorial commemorations may be of those
who died outside the dates set for commemoration by the CWGC (4
August 1914 to 31 August 1921 and 3 September 1939 to 31
December 1947)
Examples on our Town Memorial are:
Walter Mills, died 1922
Nelson Cork, died 1938
ii) the CWGC commemorates women
Examples include:
Florence Johncock
Margaret Care
iii) the CWGC charter does not yet include Great War civilian
casualties
An example of a civic memorial listing them is:
Margate
iv) the CWGC records civilians killed in World War II
Examples include:
William Champion
Freddie Spinner
Sheila Hare
Jack Pearson
v) the CWGC does not commemorate according to social groupings
but by last resting place and by name or service number
vi) civic and community memorial commemorations were and are
collected in a different way from the way CWGC records are
collected.
The last was from grave registration units and records submitted
by the forces and municipal returns, the former two were by
collection from particular communities
Examples of men commemorated on the Town Memorial but not by the
CWGC are:
Norman Masters
Peter Mello
Examples of men commemorated by the CWGC but not on the Town
Memorial
Norris Williams
John Seddon
Walter Sedgwick
Frank Smith Thomas Osborn
vii) civic and community memorials often include those who
served and survived - the Roll of Honour
viii) the CWGC has errors and omissions.
New casualties are added to CWGC records every year, thanks to
voluntary work from individuals and groups
Local examples of rectified omissions are:
from Dover, William Dixon, added December 2008
from Dover, William May, added December 2008
from Dover, Cecil Sambrook, added January 2009
from River, William Inwood, added January 2008
from Tilmanstone, Albert Husk, added February 2008
A local example of an error is:
Thomas Blaxland, from Dover, who died in 1916 and is
commemorated by the CWGC on the Tower Hill, London, Memorial for
Missing Merchant Seamen. Pilot Blaxland is actually buried in
Charlton cemetery, Dover. (A consequence of this error is that his grave is not
maintained by the CWGC, as are other servicemen's graves).
ix) the civic or community memorial has errors and omissions
The Town Memorial was erected in haste and there was a shortage
of funding.
On our Town Memorial many people were omitted, for a
variety of reasons; hence the need to
put on new plaques. The first of these plaques was placed on the
Memorial in April 1934 and contained 70 names.
Errors on our Town Memorial include:
John Baker Saunders, who is commemorated twice, as J Baker and J
B Saunders
Henry Andrews, who is commemorated as H R Anstrews
Charles Eugene Barnes Robinson, who is commemorated as C A B
Robinson
George Stephen Holder, commemorated as G S Holden
Comments on the above
are welcome. Please
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