Geograph - photograph every grid square

War Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church, Great Leighs, Essex

IWM War Memorials Archive No.22246 Link
War Memorials Online Ref #: WMO130881 Link

Unveiled at 2.30 P.M. on 12th December 1920
by Major General Sir George Scott Moncrieff, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.I.E.
Late Director of Fortifications & Works, 1914-1918
Unveiling Programme: Pages 1&4: Link Pages 2&3: Link

Set in the 1715 boundary wall outside St Mary the Virgin Church is the
Memorial to the men of the Parish of Great Leighs
who gave their lives in the World Wars of 1914~1919 and 1939~1945.
The text reads:

GREAT LEIGHS 1920
THIS TABLET WAS PLACED HERE BY THE PARISHIONERS OF GREAT LEIGHS IN
HONORED MEMORY OF FELLOW PARISHIONERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR
OUR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 ~ 1919 . THEY WHOM THIS TABLET
COMMEMORATES WERE NUMBERED AMONG THOSE WHO AT THE CALL OF KING AND
COUNTRY LEFT ALL THAT WAS DEAR TO THEM ENDURED HARDNESS FACED DANGER
AND FINALLY PASSED OUT OF THE SIGHT OF MEN BY THE PATH OF DUTY AND SELF
SACRIFICE GIVING UP THEIR OWN LIVES THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE IN FREEDOM
LET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE TO IT THAT THEIR NAMES BE NOT FORGOTTEN

CHARLES CLOUGHTON D: Link C: Link G: Link
ERNEST GEORGE CLOUGHTON D: Link C: Link M: Link
CHARLES COOK D: Link C: Link G: Link
CHARLES JOSEPH DIGBY D: Link C: Link G: Link
ERNEST DIGBY D: Link C: Link G: Link
WILLIAM DUKE D: Link C: Link M: Link
ARCHIE FITCH D: Link C: Link G: Link
ARTHUR FITCH D: Link C: Link M: Link
DICK FITCH D: Link C: Link M: Link
GEORGE BENNETT FITCH D: Link C: Link G: Link
FREDERICK MANSFIELD D: Link C: Link M: Link
CHARLES JONATHAN RAYNER D: Link C: Link M: Link
HARRY SARGEANT D: Link C: Link G: Link
ALAN GEORGE TRITTON D: Link C: Link M: Link
ALFRED REGINALD WARD D: Link C: Link G: Link
CHARLES HENRY WARD D: Link C: Link G: Link
ERNEST WRIGHT D: Link C: Link G: Link
HERBERT GEORGE WRIGHT D: Link C: Link M: Link
LOUIS WALTER WRIGHT D: Link C: Link G: Link

1939 ~ 1945
ERIC SYDNEY BRIGGS D: Link C: Link G: Link
DAVID COARD D: Link C: Link G: Link
DAVID GORDON COUSINS D: Link C: Link M: Link
ALAN HULL D: Link C: Link G: Link
RICHARD FRANK TOWNEND D: Link C: Link M: Link
ALFRED BERNARD READ D: Link C: Link G: Link

(where D: are the CWGC* Casualty Details; C: the CWGC Memorial Certificate
and G:/M: the Grave or Memorial Inscription photograph)

Louis Walter Wright and David Coard are buried within the Churchyard.

Research based on:
“Echoes of the Great War - The Diary of the Reverend Andrew Clark 1914-1919”
Oxford University Press 1985. Edited with an introduction by James Munson. ISBN 0-19-212984-8

Extracts from this publication relating to each name commemorated
on the Memorial are available here: Link

All extracts are © Oxford University Press and reproduced
by permission of Oxford University Press Link

The links to the records of the *Commonwealth War Graves Commission
beside each name above are thought to be correct.
Please contact me with any corrections.
Ernest Wright and Herbert George Wright were my Great Uncles.

I am most grateful to Pat Watkinson and Terry Goddard for their research and photographs,
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, The War Graves Photographic Project and
Oxford University Press.

The position of the Memorial can be seen in a view of St Marys Church available here:
TL7315 : St Mary the Virgin Church, Great Leighs, Essex

For more information on St. Marys, see here: Link

"They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them."
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen

"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for their tomorrow we gave our today."
US 14th Army War Memorial, Kohema, Burma