Sennen – St. Sennen Church, War Memorial & Cemetery

4 Responses to Sennen – St. Sennen Church, War Memorial & Cemetery

1. Susan says:

   January 11, 2016 at 2:26 pm

   Nice photos of a fascinating place. The church is lovely. The graves stones look so weather-worn although they’re not terribly old. A result of being on the coast or the type of material? They look as if sorrow has beaten them up.

   Reply
   • Magicfingers says:

     January 11, 2016 at 5:19 pm

     Thanks Susan. On the coast I reckon. It can be pretty bleak. Note the amount of lichen on the church tower.

     And beautifully put, if I may say so. Can I steal that line? Lol.

     Reply
2. joseph orgar says:

   January 12, 2016 at 1:13 pm

   Todays observation and question is:
   Mr Russell has a plaque in the church but not on the war memorial unless missed it.
   CWGC has his parents living in Bristol.

   Joe

   Reply
   • Magicfingers says:

     January 13, 2016 at 6:38 pm

     Right, the answer to today’s (sic) observation and question is…

     …rather complicated, actually. It starts with the fact that there was no national war memorial scheme during and after the Great War. Each village, parish, town, whatever, decided for itself whether it wanted a memorial and how they would decide which names would go on it. This might be through advertising for names through the local paper, through meetings, circulars, even boy scouts putting letters through letter boxes. None of these ways are foolproof, and explain to a certain extent why some names you might expect to find on a memorial are not on it. It’s also worth bearing in mind that some families did not want their sons/husbands name on the local memorial because they didn’t want to walk past their name every time they went to the shops or whatever. Conversely, I know of one war memorial on which there is a name and for a long time I could find no connection between the name and the place. I eventually discovered that the deceased’s wife owned a property in the area and that is the only reason why his name is on the war memorial!!

     So here’s a scenario for Lieutenant Russell. You say his family lived in Bristol, and the plaque says he was with the Gloucesters, so that makes sense. Clearly there is some link with Sennen, but we don’t know what it is. When the boy scouts popped their war memorial letters through the local letterboxes, because the Russells didn’t live there, they never got one and therefore never knew, because they were in Bristol, about the plans for a war memorial, hence his name isn’t on it. Later the family put the plaque in the church.

     It’s probably a complete fabrication, but it gives you an idea of what might have happened. I would go as far as to say that it is quite unusual, in my experience, to find, let’s say, all the CWGC graves in a particular churchyard or cemetery (where there are quite a number of war graves) on the local war memorial, and that is even more perplexing.

     Best I can do without writing a book!

     Reply

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