Villagers keep soldiers’ resting places looking fit for heroes
Goudhurst has never forgotten its 69 sons who fell in the Great War. Throughout the four years marking the centenary of the 1914-18 conflict, it has been lighting up the village with an image of their lost heroes on the day of the anniversary of their death.
But villagers have also not ignored the soldiers’ resting places in France and Belgium.
Back in 2007, the late Bob Brown, then chairman of Goudhurst and Kilndown History Society, discovered the headstone of Private George Baker of the East Surrey Regiment who fell at the Somme, incorrectly showed his surname as “Barer”. He contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission who promised to re-engrave the stone.
But when Goudhurst historian Roger Joye visited the grave in 2016 he found two surprises. First of all, the “re-engraving” was far from satisfactory with a K being imposed over the R. Secondly, there was a fresh wreath of poppies on the grave, even though Mr Joye and his wife Gill had failed to find any descendants despite extensive research.
As luck would have it, when the centenary of Private Baker’s death was commemorated in Goudhurst, on September 28 last year, George Jessel, the recently appointed High Sheriff of Kent, was among those attending. When informed of the mystery and the state of the headstone, Mr Jessel immediately offered to contact the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to see what could be done to improve the engraving.
Unbeknown to those in Goudhurst, on that same centenary day members of George Baker’s family had visited the grave in France and planted two wooden crosses bearing their Christian names. A short time later, the War Graves Commission wrote to Mr Jessel to say they had installed a new headstone and enclosed a photograph – by coincidence and with luck the two wooden crosses were included in the image and the names were legible.
Mrs Joye immediately set about tracing the names and her diligent research constructed a family tree descending from George’s sister, Mary, and including several of the names on the crosses.
It transpired the poppy wreath that Roger Joye had seen in 2016 had been laid by Private Baker’s 14-year-old great, great niece, Miriam Small, during a school visit.
At the end of March, the Goudhurst-based war graves tour company, Great War Battlefields, organised a trip for villagers to travel to the Grove Town Cemetery at Méaulte,for a ceremony to mark the renewal of Private Baker’s headstone.
Mr Jessel, who was among the party, laid a poppy wreath. Lt Col Tim Nicholson, acting chairman of the Goudhurst branch of the Royal British Legion, laid a poppy wreath depicting the East Surrey Regiment. The RBL standard was paraded by Mick Harris and the Last Post was sounded.