WAR-RELATED
Prince
of Wales
While researching one of our casualties, surnamed Prince, we came across this appealingly-named
casualty. Listed under "Prince of Wales" on the CWGC
site, he was Private B/321,
serving in the Inland Water Transport service of the Royal
Engineers.
He died on 6th September 1917, and is commemorated on the
Freetown Memorial, in Sierra Leone.
Airman's Lifeboat
On Cromer, Norfolk, seafront is a plaque to
"The Foresters' Centenary", a lifeboat in service between 1936
and 1961. The lifeboat itself is now on display in Sheringham
museum. Known to her crew as "The Pea Pod", the lifeboat was
donated to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution by The
Ancient Order of Foresters' Friendly Society, at a cost of
£3,569. She was launched 129 times and saved 82 lives. During
World War II she rescued more airmen than any other lifeboat,
hence her commemoration as "The Airman's Lifeboat".
Headstone
Visiting Brandwood End cemetery,
Birmingham, in search of the grave of our casualty Leonard John
"Billy" Bailey, we noticed this unusual headstone.
Shaped in the form of a tree-trunk,
it commemorates Frank Starkey Barnett. He was born on 26th
January 1860 and died on 13th November 1915. Also inscribed
there is the name of his wife, Bertha Barnett (nee Harrison),
born 1st November 1863, and died 28th March 1940.
They married in 1885 in the
Solihull registration district.
Headstone
At St Mary the Virgin church,
Lapworth, Warwickshire, amongst the graves, is this unusual
little memorial. The headstone reads:
"In loving memory of Frank Wise,
aged 13 years, Sidney Warren, aged 11 years, and Ernest Spight,
aged 11 years, who were drowned through the breaking of the ice
on Spring Pits on which they were sliding as they returend from
school and church on Ash Wednesday, February 13, 1907.. Also of
Arthur Wise, aged 10 years, who gave his life in a brave attempt
to save his companions. This stone was erected by the
parishioners of Lapworth as a token of sympathy with their
parents and as a warning to the children of furture generations.
