Two Polish airmen, Tadeusz Hipp and Jan Stengierski, were among four airmen killed when a Wellington crashed into trees and a small building moments after take-off from RAF Bramcote in Warwickshire.
📍Nuneaton (Oaston Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧
The striking dark grey slate headstone of Gunner Charles Norman in a Dorset cemetery. The artilleryman died of appendicitis at a hospital in Weymouth on this day in 1916.
📍Swanage (Northbrook) Cemetery 🇬🇧
Private Jacob Rivers was awarded his Victoria Cross for bravery at Neuve-Chapelle on 12 March 1915. His medal was presented to his mother at Buckingham Palace by King George V.
📍Museum of the Mercian Regiment, Nottingham Castle 🇬🇧
On 7 March 1915, Thomas Foley’s gallantry earned him the Distinguished Conduct Medal. Sadly, he also received wounds to his shoulder, neck, and lung that claimed his life four days later.
📍Poperinghe Old Military Cemetery 🇧🇪
Sister Ethel Radcliffe, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, was one of tens of thousands of service personnel who succumbed to the influenza pandemic that mercilessly claimed millions of lives in the closing phase ms of WW1.
📍Les Baraques Military Cemetery 🇫🇷
Nuneaton soldier L/Cpl Frank Merry, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, was killed in an accident while on service “somewhere in England”. The vagueness of the location hints at the secrecy and censorship used during wartime.
📍Nuneaton (Oaston Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧
Pleasantly surprised to encounter HMS Rodney while out on a walk this morning!
An identity bracelet on display in a North Devon museum. It was found by a soldier of the Devonshire Regiment in 1916 after the Battle of Dujaila, which was fought in what is now modern-day Iraq.
Can anyone read what’s on the bracelet?
📍Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon 🇬🇧
Twenty-year-old Private Thomas Jenkins of the Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry was wounded and suffering from trench fever when he was brought to the Red Cross Hospital at Corsham, where he died in March 1917.
📍Leamington (Whitnash Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧
A wreath placed at the funeral of Private Alfred Bromley read: “To my darling husband, from his heart-broken wife and children.” He died at the base hospital in 1919, aged 28, having spent four and a half years in the army.
📍Market Harborough (Northampton Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧
Second Lieutenant Walter Steuart of the Highland Light Infantry was serving as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps when he was wounded in aerial combat. The young officer died of his wounds a day later.
📍Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery 🇧🇪
After attacking a synthetic oil plant in Germany, F/Sgt Cecil Finch’s Halifax was shot down over the UK by an intruding Ju 88 night fighter as the aircraft returned to base.
📍Rugby (Clifton Road) Cemetery 🇬🇧
L/Cpl William MacPherson who served with the 9th (Glasgow Highlanders) Battalion Highland Light Infantry, died of wounds on this day in 1918.
📍Ypres Reservoir Cemetery 🇧🇪
Flt Lt Terence Healy was killed when his aircraft struck a tree during a fighter sweep. His squadron’s diary records the flight as flying at 0 ft or deck level. Earlier in the war, he had served in the Battle of Britain.
📍Bayeux War Cemetery 🇫🇷
Ralph Vipont Brown shows that courage takes many forms. Refused CO recognition at first, he later joined the Friends’ War Victims Relief Committee and went to France, he volunteered to stay after the Armistice and would die of influenza.
📍Les Baraques Military Cemetery 🇫🇷
Buried in a quiet North Devon churchyard is Waterloo veteran Sergeant John Hill, who served with the 40th Regiment of Foot throughout the Peninsular campaign with the Duke of Wellington. He died in 1861, aged 77.
📍Georgeham (St George) Churchyard 🇬🇧
Son of Lord Gort, 2nd Lieutenant The Hon. Charles Vereker, was tragically found dead with a revolver nearby on this day in 1941. He had previously been injured in a motorcycle accident and was reported to be among the last evacuated from Dunkirk.
📍Corfe Mullen Cemetery 🇬🇧
In a cruel twist of fate, it was not even his train — he should have waited for the next service to Nuneaton.
📍Nuneaton (Stockingford) Cemetery 🇬🇧
Once fit enough, he reported to Budbrook Barracks near Warwick. It was while returning home from the barracks that tragedy struck.
At Milverton Station, he attempted to board a moving train. As he grasped the carriage handle, he fell between the platform and the train and was killed…🧵
At Ypres, Pte Clarke suffered a shrapnel wound to his shoulder and was evacuated to hospital in France, then back to Britain. After his discharge, he returned home to Cross Street, Stockingford, to recover…🧵
An article in the Evening Dispatch later described his experiences — narrow escapes from death, the brutality he witnessed, harsh trench conditions, and how he put his linguistic skills to use…🧵
Sent to France as part of a draft replacing heavy early losses, he was present at several major engagements, including the retreat from Mons and the battles of La Bassée, Armentières, and Ypres…🧵
At the outbreak of war, Pte Clarke was working as a miner at the Stanley Pit, Nuneaton. He had previously served seven years as a regular soldier and was nearing the end of five years in the reserves when he was recalled to his regiment…🧵
Present at Mons and wounded at Ypres, Nuneaton soldier Private Joseph Clarke met a tragic end at a Warwick railway station…🧵
The Dockworker Memorial honours those who joined the 25 February 1941 general strike in Amsterdam to protest the persecution of Jews under Nazi occupation. Nine participants were killed, dozens injured, and hundreds arrested.
📍De Dokwerker, Amsterdam 🇳🇱
A neat row of headstones in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s third largest cemetery. Each one tells a story…
📍Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery 🇧🇪
Arundell Neave, 16th (The Queen’s) Lancers, was killed in action on this day in 1915. I believe he was a relative of Airey Neave, of Colditz escape fame, who later became a Member of Parliament and was killed by the IRA in 1979.
📍Ypres Town Cemetery 🇧🇪
A Royal Navy destroyer, HMS Warwick, was sunk by the German U-boat U-413 on 20 February 1944, off Trevose Head, killing over 60 crewmen. In Padstow Harbour there’s a plaque commemorating those killed and the bravery of those who rescued the survivors.
📍Padstow 🇬🇧
In 1982, Peter Squire, then a Wing Commander, served in the Falklands War. He led the first RAF squadron to operate from an aircraft carrier in conflict since WW2, and he was the first to launch a laser-guided bomb in combat.
📍Heanton Punchardon (St Augustine) Churchyard 🇬🇧
Frank Burton died of influenza in France on this day in 1919. He originally served with the Labour Corps before transferring to the Durham Light Infantry. The 27-year-old was from Arnold, Nottinghamshire and had served in France and Belgium.
📍Terlincthun British Cemetery 🇫🇷
