Making sure we remember them – every day
Villagers on mission to bring war memorial into regular use for residents who only stop on November 11
EVERY YEAR people declare: “We will remember them.”
But all too often war memorials are visited just once a year on November 11.
People in a West Yorkshire village want to make remembrance rock, 100 years after the end of the First World War.
On Saturday they took 100 stones from a local quarry – one slab for every year since 1918 – to build a rock garden next to the memorial outside All Hallows Church in Kirkburton.
They are also planning to use another area of the memorial garden as an outdoor classroom.
Robert Walters from Kirkburton Environment Group, who has lived in the village for nearly 50 years, said: “It is a fine memorial but it has been somewhat neglected over the years.
“Local authorities don’t have the money to do a lot of gardening work or anything like that and our group adopted the memorial and wanted to do something special for the upcoming centenary.
“We want to bring it back into part of the village and village life, so it isn’t just for Remembrance Day.”
The group were granted permission to pick up chunks of sandstone from Kirklees Council from the now-closed Kirkburton quarry for the rock garden. Members of Kirkburton’s rugby league team helped haul the stones into position.
Another part of the garden where there once stood a howitzer field gun will be turned into an area for school groups.
Mr Walters – whose father built war memorials in the 1920s – said: “We hope to change another part into an informal study area for school parties to learn about the conflicts of the past.
“We are going to put up some picnic benches. We raised £3,000 from local people by asking them to sponsor the stones and as a result of that have been able to draw down a grant of £9,000 from the William Cobbett Trust.
“People walk and drive past normally every day apart from November 11, like it is wallpaper.
“We want to bring it back into part of the heart of the village. “
The memorial contains the names of 67 men who died in the First World War and 22 from the Second World War.
Not all died in battle – probably the youngest on the memorial, Frank Shaw, 18, of the Rose and Crown Inn, enlisted in March 1918, but died of influenza while training at Rugeley, Staffordshire, the following month. Another, Charles Wary, travelled to join the Royal Flying Corps at Aldershot on September 28 1916, fell ill and died. His body came back to Kirkburton for burial barely a week later on October 4.
The men served on all major fronts both in Europe and from the Middle East to East Africa – the first casualty was Second Lieutenant JW Carter who was killed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli, on August 7, 1915.
Being a close-knit community, many of the men were related and at least two pairs of brothers died. Roger Shaw was killed in September 1918. His elder brother, William Percy Shaw, had been taken prisoner the previous year but died on board a hospital ship bringing him home in January 1919. He is buried in Kirkburton churchyard.
A board in the village library recalls the 400 men who served in the First World War. Village historian Robert Carter said: “Those who died are well remembered on countless war memorials. A few barely saw service but there were many men who answered the call on August 4, 1914 and didn’t get home to stay until well into 1919. We need to remember what they went through.”
People walk and drive past normally every day apart from November 11. Robert Walters from Kirkburton Environment Group on the village war memorial.