Cemeteries and graveyards, full of love, betrayal, tragic deaths, murder, and suicide. What will you find?

Wednesday 26 September 2012

War Grave Wednesday - R. J. Pope


 
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
 At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them".
 
 
 
Reginald John Pope was born in 1901 in Whymondham Norfolk to Elias Pope and Sarah Betts, Crockery Hawkers.  Reginald's family were Gypsies, travelling folk who sell their wares up and down the country.  On the 1911 Census the family are shown living in 'A gypsy caravan at Blackamore Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire', with their eight children, many of whom, including Reginald were attending a local school. 
 
Reginald served in the 4th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment and may have fought in the Battle of Megidoo,  sadly he died in Maidenhead on 19th October 1918.  The fact that Reginald has a Commonwealth War Grave suggests that he died as a result of injury or illness sustained during his war service.  Unfortunately I have been unable to track down any of Reginald's war service records, which is not surprising as many WWI records were destroyed or damaged by fire during the Blitz.
 
 
 


11 comments:

  1. He may well have died from Influenza as many came back from the war with it and died as a result which is why some of the dated say 1919.

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    1. Very true. But he would have had to have contracted it whilst in service. Trouble is I cannot local any service records to find out how or why he died or was discharged.

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  2. Sad that he died at such a young age. I like the simplicity of the marker.

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    1. Some of the ages these brave men died at fighting in the war are really shocking. Some of them were bearly adults.

      Commonweath War Graves were designed to be all the same so that all were equal.

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  3. i wonder about the poem you wrote down beneath the photo?
    was it on the stone?
    its a nice one

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    1. The poem was not on the stone. It is in fact a famous war poem called The Fallen written by Laurence Binyon that was published in The Times Newspaper on 21 September 1914.

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  4. It always seem such a shame to have gone through all that war mess and then to die so close to the end.

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    1. What a never understood is why when they decided the war would end on 11th of November at 11am, they carried on fighting and killing right up until the last minute. So sad.

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  5. And, CaT, that poem is used in nearly all Commonwealth Countries. It is most certainly used out here in Australia.

    I am not in favour of the style of marker used by the CWG folk. I understand the equality angle, but although all people should be equal, all people are NOT equal and they are certainly not the same. I like my markers to show character!

    Fancy having an occupation of 'crockery hawker'.

    We have wonderful records here in Australia for all the servicemen for WW1 ... online too ... and one can turn the pages ... sometimes the writing is a bloody challenge ...

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    1. Ah yes, you said what I wanted to say about the poem, but was prevented from doing so due to a threatening migraine.

      There are plenty of war dead in the UK that have personal monuments as having a war grave was totally optional. But I believe it started to help those who couldn't afford a monument to be able to do so.

      A lot of our First World War records were lost or damaged in the bombing of London during the WWII. I have since been told that there is a project underway to resort some of the damaged records. I agree about the writing thought. On next week's post I had to ask for help to understand the handwriting.

      Sorry if none of the above makes sense as I am still suffering with a migraine attack and thinking hurts somewhat.

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  6. Hope it cleared somewhat. I used to suffer from terrible migraines. But not had a single one since my divorce.

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