Blindley Heath War Memorial & St. John’s Churchyard

There’s a nice Surrey church.

Thanks, but you were locked.  Nonetheless, we have war graves,…

…and a war memorial.

The first, and most obvious, CWGC headstone in the churchyard…

…is, by the looks of it, the newest one.

You won’t find Private Booth’s name on the original churchyard register, and one wonders whether this special memorial is here due to the work of a local historian who decided, as one does on occasions, to make a memorial to Private Booth a personal mission.  If so, good job!

You might have noticed the most unusual pointing that adorns the church walls.  If not, it’s most unusual, don’t you think?

In the centre of this picture, as we head into the churchyard proper,..

…the furthest of these headstones, cross now removed and laid alongside,…

…remembers Private Charles Marrable Bryant, 13th (County of London) Princess Louise’s Kensington Battalion, The London Regiment, who was killed in action at Hébuterne on the Somme on 2nd July 1916 aged 22.  The CWGC database gives his date of death as 1st July, his body was never recovered, and his name can now be found on the Thiepval Memorial.

The grave of Lance Corporal William Arthur Humphrey, Royal Defence Corps, who died on 6th June 1919 aged 24.

In memory of Private Henry Quickenden, Middlesex Regiment, who died at sea aboard the H.M.S. “Ingoma” en route to Hong Kong on 16th March 1917, aged 23.

Two more CWGC headstones, although of very different styles.  On the left,…

…the grave of Gunner George Oliver, R.G.A., who died on 28th January 1920 from the effects of gas poisoning during the war, aged 35.

It’s quite unusual to find this type of CWGC headstone in your average English churchyard.

Originally, the family apparently rejected a CWGC headstone in favour of the now frost-shattered one behind, but frost damage has nothing to do with the style of CWGC headstone seen here.

I associate these pedestal markers with CWGC cemeteries in countries where the cemetery sites are more susceptible to the weather, serious subsidence, even earthquakes.  Above left, Beach Cemetery, Anzac, Gallipoli, above right, Pink Farm Cemetery, Helles, Gallipoli.

Rifleman Christopher Roland Brooker, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, died of pneumonia on 25th February 1916, aged 20.

Moving on, past the grave of Gunner Oliver on the right,…

…another CWGC headstone…

…marks the grave of Private William Wooldridge, Royal Army Veterinary Corps, who died on 20th May 1919, aged 51.

Ordinary Seaman James Ivory, H.M.S. “Pembroke”, who died on 22nd November 1941 aged 32.  “Pembroke” was the shore barracks and Royal Navy Supply School at Chatham in Kent.

Pilot Officer Geoffrey Polglase, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who was killed on 3rd May 1940 aged 32 when his Miles Magister trainer aircraft (inset below) ‘spun into the ground at South Godstone, Surrey’.  Twenty year-old Sergeant Pilot Leslie Evans also died in the incident, and one might presume that Polglase was the instructor on the day and Evans his student.  Leslie Evans is buried in Long Eaton Cemetery in Derbyshire.

Remembered on this headstone are Walter Pollard, killed in action in 1945, and Norman John Whittaker & his brother Ronald George, both also killed in action during the Second World War.  Corporal Walter Pollard, 12th (Airborne) Bn. Devonshire Regiment, was killed on 24th March 1945, the day that Operation Varsity deposited some 16,000 British, American & Canadian paratroopers on the eastern bank of the River Rhine.  He is buried in a collective grave in the huge – 7,500 casualties – Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany.  The only Norman Whittaker I could find is Trooper Norman John Whittaker, 18th Royal Hussars, R.A.C., who was killed on D-Day, 6th June 1944, aged 21.  He is buried in Hermanville War Cemetery, a few miles north of Caen, and his name also appears on the Groesbeek Memorial in the Netherlands.  Private Ronald George Whittaker, Royal Sussex Regiment, was killed on 22nd November 1941 aged 26, and lies in Halfaya Sollum War Cemetery* in Egypt.  And at the top of the headstone, ‘…our dear sister Winnie Elizabeth Pollard’, who died on 16th October 1946′.   Walter Pollard was her husband, and the two Whittakers her brothers.  Did she just give up after being surrounded by so much death?  Or worse?  She was still just twenty six.

*curiously, and entirely coincidentally, the only other WWII British casualty named Walter Pollard is also buried here.

May didn’t give up, that’s for certain.