Remembrance Day

On Friday 11 November we met at Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton, to remember the British and Commonwealth war dead, and - quite  fortuitously - we met up with approximately sixty young children and their teachers from a local junior school.  This meeting made the day for us, and clearly added to their day also, so much so we hope to join forces with the school again next year and plan in advance for another Remembrance Day meeting.

Hollybrook Military Cemetery is part of the chain instigated by Royal Charter in 1917 for the burial of 1.7 million soldiers worldwide.

Here in Southampton there are 365 war graves at Hollybrook and a further 800 graves at Netley.

All military cemeteries are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and it is a real delight to see how well they are tended.

There are 113 graves at  Hollybrook for WW1 and 1 900 names on the memorial for those with no known grave, were lost or buried at sea.  Hindu cremations are also listed.

All the headstones are uniform with no rank distinctions.

The youngest serviceman  to be buried there is Boy Soldier William Hesterman, aged 14 from Blighmont Avenue, Millbrook, Southampton, who died in Ireland in 1921.

The oldest is Watchman Silvester, aged 65, a Merchant Seaman who served aboard the ss 'Atlantis'

Another local man is Captain John Hughes, from Lordswood, 13th Bn. The Hampshire Regiment, Itchen Home Guard.

Many of the old British Commonwealth nations are represented by the graves and  by the names engraved on the memorial.

At 11 a.m. a two minutes silence was observed, preceded by the Last Post being played, and ending with the Reveillie, which co-incided with the sounding of ships sirens from the nearby docks

The event was arranged by Mike Humme, who provided the wreath and several hundred small wooden crosses which were distributed among the children and it was good to see the eagerness with which they went about placing them on the graves and finding things of interest written on the headstones, both at the British and Commonwealth section of the cemetery for WW1,  and at the site of the WW2 graves to which we moved following the wreath laying.

Many interesting things were recounted, both by Mike, from his research and knowledge of the cemetery, and by the children from their examination of the headstones,  including:   There are 186 graves at the WW2 plot, including three unidentified seamen, and Dutch, Polish and German war graves.

There are two young ladies buried there, being 19 year old Moira Livesey, a member of the Womens Royal Naval Service, whose parents were from New Zealand, and 18 year old Gladis Lea of the Transport Auxillery Service, who died on 14 February 1945.

 Lt. Hawks of the Royal Army Medical Corps, killed on Salisbury Plain during a fire-power demonstration on 13 April 1942, along with Lt. Wilson Gordons.

Padre Derrick Williams, on 5 June 1944 whilst serving with a  Royal Marines Commando on D-Day preparations.

Poppy crosses were placed on all the graves, both from WW1 and WW2 and for all nations.

We reflected not only  on the dead from the many conflicts which have plagued the world since WW2, with a special thought for those who are today fighting in distant parts of the world, but also on those who were left behind, especially the young children of those who died, and the significance of the words........
                                             
                                                  "WHEN YOU GO HOME
                                                   TELL THEM OF US AND SAY
                                                    FOR YOUR TOMORROW
                                                    WE GAVE OUR TODAY"


JG