Busbridge Churchyard & War Memorial

Last post we took a look inside the church – the spire is visible in the background – as well as Lutyens’ curious design for the grave of Gertrude Jekyll, which is actually sited just beyond the church.

This time we’ll have a look at Lutyens’ design for Busbridge war memorial.

The names, as we saw last post, are inscribed inside the north wall of the church,…

…and it’s probably a good job too,…

…bearing in mind the current state of this inscription.  Someone really made an effort for the recent centenary commemorations, didn’t they?

No, they didn’t.  Shocking.

Side views.  I suppose, if it had some practical use,…

…this design might be referred to as utilitarian.

There are a couple of Great War burials in this part of the churchyard,…

…this the grave of Private W. T. Knight, 23rd Bn. London Regiment, who sadly died of malaria on 16th February 1919, aged 22,…

…and this (that’ll be Duncan the Elder doing a Baldrick – i.e. getting in the way!  Honestly, you just can’t get the staff these days……)…

…is the grave of Driver Robert John Potter, Royal Engineers, who was just eighteen years old when he somehow drowned on 4th July 1917.

It wouldn’t surprise me, particularly if it happened outside an Army camp, if the local newspapers got hold of the story at the time – so there’s some research for someone to do, someday.  Nice car, by the by.  Okay, it’s mine.

One more headstone of interest, remembering Richard Jones, 20th Hussars, who died on 20th April 1884 aged 18, and Hubert Jones, 6th Dragoons, killed in action in South Africa on 4th January 1900, aged 21.

Did I mention that, although I am often a Luytens fan, I don’t actually like his English war memorials very much.  I am not a religious chap (though I’ll have a theological discussion with you any time), so I suppose it’s really none of my business, but I find the cross itself rather underwhelming, and the shaft and base plain ugly.  Incidentally, I believe that there are only fifteen English village war memorials designed by Lutyens, all of which feature a similar style of cross, so you’re actually very unlikely to come across one.

This entry was posted in Surrey, U.K. Churches, Memorials & Cemeteries - Back in Blighty. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Busbridge Churchyard & War Memorial

  1. sendergreen says:

    I’m wondering if perhaps the damage to the Cenotaph stone was from an attempt by a well meaning rookie to clean off moss? Using a cleaner that dissolved more than the moss. It does look pitted. I’ve watched a few videos of people on the south side of our border do veterans grave markers. They use some commercially available products formulated just for thatthat do no damage to anything but the moss.

  2. nicholas Kilner says:

    Thats one seriously ugly memorial!

  3. Richard says:

    Was there yesterday (16 June 2023).

    The Richard Jones /Hubert Jones headstone/memorial has had a bit of a clean with the lettering picked out in black.

    It seems to have been reset in a more upright position as well – unless I am mistaking your trendy camera work for a serious list.

    On the side of the church between the church and road, there’s also a memorial inscription to 19 year-old Harold Victor Sturgeon who was killed in action in January 1917. See link below.

    https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/100323

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