WE REMEMBER IN JULY

Old Whittington and The Brushes suffered  many casualties during the month of July.  Especially  July 1916, which most of us will now know as the month the Battle of the Somme started.  1st July 1916 is one of the most infamous days of WW1.  Old Whittington lost 2 men on the first day and overall on that first day there were 57,470 British casualties, including 19,240 men killed.

We remember the following men who died in July:

Robert Bunting          1 July 1916

Clarence Hewitt        1 July 1916

Sam Waine                 2 July 1918

George Bates             3 July 1916

Fred  Lilliman           3 July 1916

George Barker         14 July 1916

Wm Leachman        14 July 1916

Harry Lilliman        14 July 1916

Fredk C Massey       14 July 1916

Archie Newell          14 July 1916

Wm Whitmore        23 July 1918

Jno Thos Warwick  25 July 1916

Ernest Watts            29 July 1915

Geo Isaac Fearn      31 July 1916

 

For the Fallen

By Robert Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

 

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

 

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

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.

 

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England’s foam.

 

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

 

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

(Above casualty figures taken from http://www.iwm.org.uk)