Soldier’s violin played at last, beside his grave
Instrument made by private killed in war is heard for first time 100 years after his death
WHEN Private Richard Howard began making his violin, he envisaged the day he would return from the battlefield to play it.
It was a dream cruelly shattered when the soldier met his death on the first day of the Battle of Messines in 1917.
Now, 100 years later, the violin – carefully completed on being found – has been played at his graveside, and reunited members of his widespread family who never even knew he existed.
Among those present at the ceremony was his granddaughter Mary Sterry, who wrote a poem in tribute to the grandfather she has only recently discovered.
Pte Howard, a luthier and music hall performer in Leeds, started making the instrument in 1915, before he was conscripted into the 10th battalion, the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (West Riding), that year at the age of 35.
He died on June 7 1917, on the opening day of the battle in Belgium.
Much of the violin’s history, before it was bought in 2009 by musician Sam Sweeney, of the celebrated folk band Bellowhead, remains a mystery.
It was in pieces when Oxford luthier Roger Claridge bought it at auction and completed it in his workshop.
When Mr Sweeney acquired the violin, it had the appearance of a new instrument, but the label inside dated 1915 alongside the name “Richard S Howard” prompted the musician and his father to trace its origin.
Mr Sweeney, 28, violinist with the award-winning 11-piece band until it broke up in 2016 after 12 years, said through research “we found out where his grave was and found out exactly when he died and which battle”.
Pte Howard was married with a daughter, Mrs Sterry’s mother Rose, but his relatives were unaware of his story before Mr Sweeney brought it to light.
Mrs Sterry said: “I was very interested to learn about him because I had heard nothing except ‘your grandfather died in the war’.
“People in those days didn’t talk about it for fear of upsetting someone. My mother was 11 when he died. The consequences from it have been so great. I was more secure knowing more about who I was.”
Around 100 people – including some of Pte Howard’s relatives – gathered at his graveside in Ypres to hear Mr Sweeney play his violin this week on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the soldier’s death.
Mrs Sterry said it was “completely fantastic”, saying it had changed her “in lots of small ways”, especially through meeting new members of the family.
‘I had heard nothing except “your grandfather died in the war”. People in those days didn’t talk about it’