Memorial to Flavius Fuscinus & Flavius Romanus

It is an improbable irony that when Edith MacIver placed the Battlefield Cross of Reggie MacIver in the gardens of the family home at Wanlass How she can have had no idea that one of the oldest 'war memorials' in the Kingdom lay a few yards away.

This unique Roman gravestone, accidentally discovered in the grounds of Wanlass How in 1962 and now housed in the remarkable Armitt Museum & Library in Ambleside, was originally located outside the east gate of Galava, the Roman fort and vicus which stood for some 400 years at the north end of Lake Windermere.

Made of local slate, it bears a rather crudely, maybe even hastily executed & abbreviated inscription;

DBM
FLA FUSCINUS EME
EXORDIVISI ANIS LV
DBM
FLA ROMANUS ACT
VIXIT ANNI XXXV
INCAS INTE AB HOSTI

Which translates as;

To the Gods of the underworld. Flavius Fuscinus, retired from
the Centurianship, lived 55 years.

To the Gods of the underworld. Flavius Romanus, clerk, lived 35
years, killed in the camp by the enemy.

A full discussion of the stone and its inscription is in the CWAAS transactions for 2002. Almost certainly these two guys were related, most likely father and son. Both were Roman citizens, probably as a consequence of the father, if such he is, having served his time as a centurian in an auxilliary unit, perhaps that which was stationed at Galava. At some time, probably during the troubles of the late 2nd/early 3rd centuries, one or both of these guys was killed, perhaps in a raid on the fort by invaders from the north or perhaps by disaffected local tribespeople. Whatever the exact scenario may be the stone clearly commemorates a death in conflict & is thus incontrovertibly a War Memorial! I really cannot think of an earlier memorial in the county.

I find this memorial really thought provoking. It seems to be the human condition to kill one another and then to commemorate the 'separateness' of consequential deaths. Or is this a presumption? Does it come entirely from the classical eastern mediterrannean tradition or did all societies create 'war memorials'? I don't know.

A national treasure?

In 2005 I travelled down to Portsmouth to see my daughter who was studying Russian at the University. While there I took the opportunity to visit the extensive museums & exhibits in the Royal Dockyards. During that year the focus of the exhibits was the bi-centenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. Layed out on the floor of one of the old sail lofts and pitted with holes from French cannonballs was the absolutely huge mainsail that HMS Victory wore during the battle. Surely a national treasure?

In the church at Sawrey (more properly Claife), close to Beatrix Potter's house at Hill Top, there are two union flags, a smaller one and a larger one. A small brass on the wall and an accompanying note explain that these were presented to the church by the Rev CC Dickson who during the Great War was a chaplain to the forces. The note also states that the flag, presumably the larger one, flew over Field Marshall Douglas Haig's headquarters at Cambrai, France on November 11, 1918. The smaller flag has no provenance but it may well have been used by Dickson during church services or burials. Such smaller Union Jacks are fairly commonly associated with memorials.

However, I would suggest that the 'Armistice Flag', if such I may call it, is an astonishing object. It is absolutely unique, of national importance, and must most assuredly have a special place in the great continuum of British history.

Returning to Ypres: the Holy Ground of British Arms

The Ypres Salient … belongs henceforward to history and will for evermore be a sacred place for pilgrims to the graves of the heroic dead.

Henry Beccles Willson

The Great War saw the death of over a million British and Empire troops. Of these the vast majority were on The Western Front in France & Flanders. Here the focus for grieving would eventually come to be centred on The Somme & the Belgian town of Ypres.

By Christmas 1914 the trenches immediately east of Ypres formed a huge bulge thrusting into the German lines. For the following four years it was fought over relentlessly as the German army tried to clear it. The casualties were horrendous - by 1918 these few square miles held close to quarter of a million British & Imperial dead. In 1920 a Canadian Lieutenant Colonel, Henry Beckles Willson, described it as The Holy Ground of British Arms. However, as I grew up old men who were there spoke with pride and bitterness of The Immortal Salient.

The uniqueness of this place in British & Commonwealth history, and perhaps the inspiration for Willson, was expressed by a sign erected among the shattered ruins of the town in the immediate aftermath of the conflict.

NOTICE

This is Holy Ground.

No Stone of This fabric may be taken away.

It is a Heritage for all Civilised

Peoples.

Town Major

Visitors started making their way to Ypres very soon after the armistice to pay respects to lost husbands, fathers or sons or all to often simply to try and trace a body. For the luckier ones there would be a grave, marked initially with a battlefield cross and later with an Imperial War Graves Commission headstone, where wreaths could be left and a connection made with the dead. But vast numbers of the dead were lost - the memorials at Tyne Cot & the Menin Gate bear 89,187 names of the missing of the Ypres salient.

The first visitors to the battlefields, initially an expensive and complicated business, were gentry who had the resources to make the journey. Editha Bigland of Bigland, near Cartmel visited Festubert in a vain search for the grave of her only son, George, killed in 1915. In July 1920 Edith Squarey MacIver of Wanlass How, Ambleside and widow of David MacIver of Birkenhead set out to visit the graves of her two sons and a stepson. She was accompanied by Albert, the chauffeur, her surviving son, Alan McIver M.C., late of the 20th Lancashire Fusiliers, and Hugh ‘Cherry’ Sanderson. Edith kept a journal of the trip.

We went into Ypres by the West entrance and then out by the south to see a farmhouse, called by the Brigade Woodgate House, where Alan's Brigade H.Q. were for a time in 1918. The ruin of Ypres is indescribable, there are no houses left in the town and the place us full of Army huts of all sorts and sizes.

At Pilckem Ridge,

Barbed wire and all sorts of debris, bits of accoutrement, broken trucks, dud shells lay about, and here and there tanks pounded out of all likeness to themselves, and here and there a solitary cross among the grass. Silent and solemn tokens of what the place was like two years ago and since 1914. These remains were even more frequent when we went to Langemarck along the Poelcapelle road. Before getting to Langemarck we turned off along a little road to look for a concrete German pillbox, which was Alan's Brigade H.Q. for about two months in 1918, which they called "Varna Farm". Here the shells etc lay about thickly. It was some time before Alan found it but he did at last. He picked up a rusty English rifle and I an English helmet, but it had a hole in the side and a bullet must have gone through it into the man's
head, so I put it down again and left it.

They made their way to La Clytte and the grave of Captain Andrew Tucker Squarey MacIver, Edith's eldest son,

The cemetery is not so near the church as I expected and is of course full of crosses in neat rows. English soldiers were working in it: one soldier was an inspector of cemeteries. An Englishman married to a French woman is in charge now. We soon found Andrew’s cross in the earlier part. His cross has been touched by shell fire, a bit of the circle broken and the top too. The grass is long but it is the light flowering kind and there were tiny pansies and
pimpernel among it. The soldier got a bit of turf off in front of the cross for me to put in the Manor Hill pansies and Wanlass earth. He stood beside me all the time. I sent one or two wild anspy roots to Wanlass and they have flourished in the rockery.

They went on to visit the graves of Robert & Reg MacIver. Edith acquired Reg's cross and put it in the garden at Wanlass How. I presume it rotted away years ago. All three MacIver brothers have brasses in the small and now redundant church at Wray, above Windermere and are commemorated on various other memorials around the Lakes and in the Wirral.

As the 1920s progressed 'pilgrimages' became accessible to the masses, culminating in the great 1928 British Legion Pilgrimage to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the armistice. At some point during these years these Lakeland veterans, bemedalled, bowler hatted and accompanied by their wives, returned to the scenes of their youth. This photo inscribed on the back - Vimy Ridge - is one of my most treasured possessions. I found it in the early 1980s among a pile of burnt household junk, fly tipped in an old quarry near Coniston.

Charlie Keith, Lindale

There are probably two or three hundred memorials to individuals scattered across the county. Most commemorate officers, but there are some that were erected to the memory of private soldiers.


In Lindale churchyard there is a CWGC headstone standing over the grave of 1856 Private Charlie Keith, a young soldier of the 1/4 Kings Own Royal Lancasters. Charlie was the youngest son of William Keith of Yew Trees. Lying in front of the headstone is an inscribed shield,

In lasting memory
of Private Charlie Keith
A Co 4th Batn KORL
Killed at Slough October 21st 1914
Aged 19 Years
A Memento From His
Comrades

The manner of Charlie's death is alluded to in the book The Fourth Battalion The Kng's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) and The Great War, written by two former officers, Lt Col Wadham & Captain Crossley in 1919/20.

It was not to be expected that men fresh from the country, many of whom had never seen an express train before, could carry out these duties on a section ofline such as the one for which the Battalion was responsible, without some casualties occurring. During the time the Battalion was employed on this duty several good men lost their lives in the service of their country, who could no doubt have preferably made the same sacrifice, had the opportunity been given them, against a more vulnerable foe than an express train.

A press report of the funeral suggests that virtually every house in the immediate district was represented in the church and many others from surrounding villages had to stand outside as Boy Scouts wheeled in the bier holding Charlie's coffin, draped with a union flag.

The plaque lay forgotten for years until it was rediscovered by the late Mr Frank Brooks of Grange in the 1990s. However, since being exposed to the elements it has unfortunately weathered heavily and the inscription visible on this photo taken by Howard Martin of Cartmel is now barely legible.

The provision of small memorials, paid for by subscription to honour the memory of men who served in volunteer units, which the 1/4 King's Own was heir to, follows a long tradition. Gardner's at Urswick created in 1821 and illustrated below is another example. Indeed, prior to the Great War they were just about the only form of memorial naming the common soldier to be erected. The death of Regular Soldiers or Sailors was very rarely acknowledged.

Battlefield cross of Lt Col CG Buckle DSO, MC, 2nd Northamptons

The degree of interest in the Great War in recent years is quite staggering. As a child my family and I used to visit my grandfather's grave on The Somme and I remember my father's sadness in the 1950s & 1960s that so few people paid their respects to the legions of dead in France & Flanders. Now it is quite different. Indeed, it is an industry.

This vast interest, coupled with the internet, is a great boon to the historian, be it professional or casual. Many people are producing quality research on every aspect of the conflict and the goodwill between such folk means much of it is freely available.

A case in point relates to this rather forlorn battlefield cross displayed in the porch at Warcop church. It originally marked the grave at Juvincourt, Chemin des Dames of Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Galbraith 'Garry' Buckle DSO, MC who was killed on 27 May 1918, aged 30; By coincidence my grandfather was killed the following day. Buckle is now buried at La Ville-Aux-Bois British Cemetery, near Rheims. It is a concentration cemetery established after the armistice and many isolated battlefield graves such as Buckle's were brought here.

The cross bears a roughly inscribed plaque with his name, rank, regiment, decorations and the date of his death. The Debt of Honour Register at the CWGC website provides the names and addresses of his father, mother & wife.

However, a search on the Great War Forum http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=90137&hl=warcop using the searchwords 'Buckle' or 'Warcop' produces a huge amount of information on the man's life and his career both before and during the war that has been researched by individuals and including this photograph....

Buckle was the son of Major General CR Buckle, CB., CMG., DSO, (Royal Artillery). Educated at Marlborough he was commissioned to the Northamptonshire Regiment from Sandhurst in 1907. In 1914 he was a Lieutenant, seconded to the Colonial Office in West Africa and was only posted to France after Aubers Ridge in 1915. He soon rose to become Brevet Major and acting Lt Colonel commanding the 2nd Northamptons. He was wounded three times and mentioned in dispatches three times. A married man, the family home was at 'Steelbacks', Overstrand, Cromer, Norfolk. Steelbacks was the nickname of the Northamptonshire Regiment. His son, Christopher - 'Dickie' - , became a stage designer and ballet critic.

Buckle's mother visited the Western Front after the war and found her son's grave beside the dug-out where he was killed and subsequently wrote a book about him, A Kingly Grave in France.

There are quite a number of battlefield crosses in the county. They were offered to the relatives of the dead by the IWGC when permanent cemeteries and headstones were erected during the 1920s, their transport to the UK undertaken by the Church Army.

While writing this post I put a query on the Great War Forum & within 24 hours there were two replies. One guy photographed 4 pages of Dickie Buckle's autobiography, describing the events surrounding his father's death http://www.flickr.com/photos/24070199@N03/2286569042/in/photostream/& another posted a brief piece from Edward Short's autobiography, 'I Knew My Place' describing events at the unveiling of Warcop War Memorial....

.....Garry Buckle ..[was].. a popular, dashing man. His young and beautiful wife who lived at The Fox, a cottage over the beck from the war memorial and who was related to the Chamley's at Warcop House, was there with her son Dickie, and her husband's parents. Great and obvious was Mrs Garry's embarrassment when 'old' Mrs Buckle stepped forward and kissed her son's name. It was a moment of drama and anguish such as Warcop, an undemonstrative place, had rarely, if ever, known before....

World War 2 rolls

Many of the precedents set in the years following the Great War were again adopted after 1945. The creation of rolls was one such. The two illustrated here, Wythburn at the top and Westward below, are examples of the listings of names that were created.

Wythburn roll which covers the parishes of St John in the Vale & Castlerigg with Wythburn is peculiarly antiquated in design, employing a vaguely neo-gothic & Christian iconography that would seem more appropriate to a high Victorian city church than to a isolated lakeland chapel. The names of four dead in the central panel are sanctified by an associated cross in the central altar panel. The considerable number of those who served fill the side panels.

Westward is without symbolism and simply calls itself a Roll of Service. It is similar to Wythburn in the separation of the names of the dead but differs in the gender split and the details of service. Neither is signed though both were probably created by professional or semi-professional illuminators.

I find rolls like this fascinating. They illustrate both differences in the way the two wars were fought and perceptions of service. WW2 rolls have numbers of names of guys who fought and died in the Merchant Marine which are generally lacking in WW1 lists. They also show how the RAF, primarily bomber command, took huge numbers of men away from the Infantry Regiments that dominate earlier rolls. Nor did those that did serve in the infantry serve with 'Pals' type units whose losses cut swathes through local communities in 1916.

A further difference is in the gender of those commemorated. Though there are women named on WW1 rolls, primarily nurses, they do not appear in the same numbers as in the later rolls, a reflection of the growth of the women's armed services.

Wooden crosses

Located in a number of churches in the south and east of the county are large oak crosses with brass plaques bearing the names of the dead, normally of both world wars, and occassionally of later conflicts. The example at Old Hutton is shown here.

Their limited dispersal and uniformity intrigues me. Who made them, and why the distribution? There are clues. At Crossthwaite a short history associated with the cross states that it was made from village oak and was until 1998 outside the church. A press report from the early '20s further indicates that the example at Skelsmergh was in the lych gate. A faculty for the placement of Heversham cross in the church was granted in May 1920. Their origin was suggested to me after I delivered a short paper at a study day for the Centre for North West Regional Studies. A member of the audience said that they were made at the Sedgewick Gunpowder Works at Gatebeck, Kendal under the auspices of Colonel Weston of Enyeat, the MP for (I think) Westmorland.

Thus it appears likely, though unproven, that these crosses were initiated by Colonel Weston about 1916 for parishes within his constituency, perhaps using oak provided by individual communities. Most, if not all, were placed in the open and served as memorials for the dead until more substantial memorials were erected when they were generally moved into the church. Some were mounted on the wall and others were furnished with rather elegant bases and frames, as at Crosscrake, above.

The individual brasses are also informative. The style of lettering is not always uniform suggesting that they were probably added as the men died. Documents from Holme suggest that the brasses there were made by W Middleton of Kendal and paid for by the families of the dead, the cost being reimbursed from the village's Patriotic fund around the same time as the memorial was created in 1923.

At Milnethorpe the cross serves as a focus for what is to all intents a small memorial chapel or shrine with the village roll above and places for flags, probably originally union flags but now only a standard of the Royal British Legion.

Unusually the Trench Art vases, that were commonly provided for memorials and rolls, remain unstolen.

I have documented crosses at Witherslack, Crossthwaite, Crosscrake, Heversham, Holme, Preston Patrick, Skelsmergh, Old Hutton. Kirkby Stephen, Milnethorpe. There is a smaller cross at New Hutton and the brasses from a former cross at All Hallows, Kendal were recorded in the early 1990s before the church closed, but I have not traced them. There are certainly others and I would like to know of them.