Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request War grave

I was photographing war graves last year at Landican and discovered an error on one. I notified commonwealth war graves and it has just been corrected. Spot the difference.

Well spotted......5.J.Hunt-STH May!

" Y "

arm - army

Well done Helles. What a difference a 'Y' makes!

It's a respect thing. If we can't get the little things correct then it is disrespectful in my humble. CWGC were very good though I have to say and they also re-did the screen panel in the little war cemetery.

There are also eight CWWGC graves in the churchyard at Shotwick, WW1 trainee pilots from Canada, killed in training. Worth a visit. And some very wonky graves.

Might pop up and do them over the Easter break. I also look for family memorials which mention relatives killed in both world wars but not buried in that place.

The stories behind the graves are in one of Mike Grants "Aviation across the Borders" books, vol-2 I think. I ca dig it out if you want.

Well done Helles,great work!
CWGC are very helpful,i worked with a group of people discovering non comms from ww1,now glad to see they have been payed their due respect.

What it is, I take the photo's to go on a website so that people can try and look up relatives or whatever. As opposed to one site, this one is free and personally I think that is the way it should be.

There are many RAF graves on the Wirral including quite a few in the south end due to RAF Hooton and the like. In the little catholic church at Childer Thornton there is one solitary war grave with a 2nd Lt who originated from the USA. With a rank like that, he would have orignally signed up for the Royal Flying Corps because those that don't know, 2nd Lt is an army rank, not RAF.

http://www.britishwargraves.co.uk/

From "Wings across the Borders vol-1",

21/7/18 Hooton Park. Sopwith Dolphin C4138, 2/Lt JPF English, RAF, 25, Troy, New York, Killed in flying accident, buried in St Mary of Angels RC Churchyard, Hooton. Body later exhumed.

and from Cross and Cockade:

21.7.1918 Killed while flying Sopwith Dolphin C4138, aged 25.
Son of Lawrence A English and Mary English, Washington Park, Troy.
Husband of Gertrude E F English, 2315 Fifth Avenue, Troy, New York, USA.
Buried : St Mary of the Angels Roman Catholic Cemetery, Hooton, Cheshire (Cheshire 194). Later exhumed and returned to Canada.
Sopwith 5F1 Dolphin C4138 was built by Sopwith at Kingston.

Interesting! So there is an empty grave there then? Wonder why they left the stone?

Edit. Checked CWGC and according to that he is buried there. Wonder where the author got his information from?

I spoke to Mike Grant earlier, he would have got the info by looking at squadron losses from the RAF, and then following up each loss from either RAF records or from the Church records being marked "exh". He does remember visiting the church, there is a memorial inside the church door as well. As for leaving the gravestone standing for an exhumed body - he has no idea why, other than as a memorial, or to preserve a "row" of them. It's really a question for the CWWGC I guess. Mike did say there are quite a few different situations that he has met.

Okay thanks for that. Re the row, he is the only one in there so it won't be for that. Wonder if the people placing poppy wreaths there realise? Suppose it is symbolic more than anything.

All interesting stuff isn't it?