Aldershot Military Cemetery Part Two

There are around seven hundred Great War graves in this cemetery, seventy of which are to be found among the burials here in Plot R. 

This view looks from north to south down the plot, with the Army Service Corps staff serjeant at this end of the row closest to the camera a late casualty from October 1918, and the headstone at the far end of the row…

…that of an A.S.C. driver who died in September 1915, and so that I don’t have to mention it again, let’s get the Army Service Corps error out of the way before we go any further.

Now, we all know, do we not, perhaps because we have all read my 2021 post on the Army Service Corps, that the A.S.C. would not receive its ‘Royal’ prefix until late in 1918, and thus it would be wrong to have ‘Royal Army Service Corps’ inscribed on headstones of men of the A.S.C. who died before then, such as we see here.

It was even spotted on the official Index of Graves – there are four examples, including Driver Freeman, in the right-hand column of this page extract, and all have had ‘Royal’ crossed out in red ink – but this was either too late, the headstones having already been inscribed, or nobody took any notice.  Of the 126 men of the Army Service Corps* buried in the cemetery, only eleven, those who died in 1919, 1920 & 1921, would have known during their lifetimes that the corps had received its ‘Royal’ prefix.

*by far the majority, seventy six in total, died in 1915.

The Great War burials continue down the slope, these graves among the earliest in the plot,…

…the Barrack Warden on the right dying on 2nd September 1914, the men behind later in 1914, and the Irish Guardsman on the left on 1st July 1915.  In the centre,…

…these two Belgian soldiers must have been wounded, probably during the First Battle of Ypres, and evacuated to Blighty, where they subsequently died on 23rd October (right) & 31st October (left) 1914.

‘Erected by his comrades’.  But, I’m afraid, not well enough, chaps.

Two burials from the 1920s,…

…before the Great War burials continue along the top of the plot, these men early 1915 casualties,…

…and the men closest to the camera here both casualties from April 1916.  The cross on the right…

…is inscribed with two names, a Canadian A.S.C. sergeant-major who died in Springfield War Hospital, in Upper Tooting in London, although I know not when, and Lieutenant John Joseph Leo Morgan, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, who died of wounds received at Festubert on 16th May 1915, and is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery.

The view from Plot R looking back up the hill – the early photos in the previous post were taken up at the top looking towards us.  The cluster of headstones mid-way up in the centre constitutes most of Plot V, those to the left of the large bush Plot U.  The burials immediately in front of us are casualties from 1916, on the right, and 1917, on the left, and as we move on,…

…we find the later Great War burials in the plot, the four men in the front row casualties from 1918,…

…and these from 1920 & 1921.  At which point we’ll take a brief look at the headstones up on the slope, Plot U, where we begin, on the left of the bush.

These three rows of graves are all post-World War II,…

…and all appear to be officers,…

…some buried beneath CWGC headstones,…

…and some not.

Back in Plot R, the R.G.A. lance bombardier buried in the foreground and the private buried beneath the cross,…

…are the final two Great War burials in the whole cemetery, their names the two at the bottom of this GRRF.  Lance Bombardier Smith’s date of death predates the final date that entitled a deceased soldier to a CWGC headstone (31st August 1921) by just three weeks.

Plot V, my two other c0mpanions for the day there ahead of me.

These graves in Plot V are all Great War Canadian casualties except for the man buried in the foreground,…

…who is a Second World War Royal Artillery gunner, his headstone informing us that he was from Newfoundland.  On our right,…

…in the foreground, the grave of Lieutenant General Sir Paul Anthony Travers KCB, who was appointed Quartermaster-General to the Forces in 1982, and who died in office soon after, on 10th June 1983, aged 55.

Behind, this smart but unassuming cross…

…marks the grave of the second of the Victoria Cross holders buried in this cemetery,…

…that of Field Marshal Sir Henry Evelyn Wood V.C.  As a brigade major during the Indian Mutiny he was awarded a Victoria Cross ‘For having, on the 19th of October, 1858, during action at Sindwaho, when in command of a Troop of the 3rd Light Cavalry, attacked with much gallantry, almost single-handed, a body of Rebels who had made a stand, whom he routed. Also, for having subsequently, near Siudhora, gallantly advanced with a Duffadar and Sowar of Beatson’s Horse, and rescued from a band of robbers, a Potail, Chemmum Singh, whom they had captured and carried off to the Jungles, where they intended to hang him.’

Wood (above, from left, in 1852, 1855, 1916 & 1917) would return to Great Britain in 1886 and was appointed General Officer Commanding Aldershot Command on 1st January 1889, a post he would hold until October 1893, and should you wish to find out more about him, I’m sure you are most capable.

This single CWGC grave…

…is one of only seven South African Great War casualties buried in the cemetery.

As Duncan peruses the headstones in Plot R – I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly certain this plot is designated as Plot R because all the burials within are Roman Catholic – you might notice that many of the headstones at this southern end of the plot…

…feature clipped edges,…

…signifying that these burials are not World War burials, although there are men who fought in the Second World War among them.

And there are many much more recent burials too.  The two graves in the foreground are of a Parachute Regiment major who died in 2017 on the left, and an S.A.S. veteran who died, aged 97, in 2019, on the right.  The headstones with little flags placed at each of their bases at the very back of this shot…

…are all Polish burials from the years immediately following the Second World War.  A few of them, such as the two closest to the camera in this shot,…

…and the man buried on the right here, are inscribed simply with ‘Polish Forces’, the remainder,…

…including these three Polish officers, (from left, a captain, a lieutenant colonel and, on the right, a major general), all of whom died in 1948, are men of the Polish Resettlement Corps.

Final view of Plot R; the space on the right, beyond the second seat, will, I think, be filled in future years.  In the background,…

…our route continues along that pathway…

…as we leave Plot R and head across the cemetery towards Plots AD & AE, on the far right of my, somewhat rough, cemetery plan.

On our way,  these cremations (I presume) in Plot GR, include, in the centre, Major Edward Edmund Tonks, 10th Hussars (Royal Armoured Corps), M.C. & Bar, who died in 1986 aged 72, and whose exploits during the Second World War, from what I’ve found out, in particular during his period as a prisoner of the Germans – he escaped – are worthy of a film or, at the very least, a book, I’d have thought.  And no, once again, find out for yourselves.

Ahead of us are more CWGC graves, but our destination is up the slope to our left,…

…where these first graves are 19th Century burials,…

…those in front, early 20th Century,…

…and there are a handful of early graves…

…among the trees at the very top of the slope, the wire fence signifying the cemetery’s eastern boundary in the background, but the headstone inscriptions are difficult to decipher,…

…and anyway, we are primarily here to see these Great War graves.  Almost obscured by the trees on the left, and about to be engulfed by the large bush behind,…

…both these men are R.A.F. ground crew who died in May (right) & July 1918,…

…their names at the bottom of this GRRF.  All the other men buried in this small plot died in 1916 or earlier,…

….and include a second South African grave, in the centre of this row, Corporal F. C. Warneke, who died of meningitis on 2nd September 1916 aged 30,…

…and a Canadian private, closest to the camera, who died on 13th April 1916.

Behind, the graves in the final two rows are from 1915,…

…with the single 1914 burial, the first name on the GRRF, behind.

Down at the bottom of the slope, Plot A contains the largest number of Second World War burials, 86 out of a total of 129 men to be found here,…

…and these graves, which are neither Great War nor Second World War.  All will be revealed next post.