GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

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

UK National Inventory of War Memorials No.22246 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 Link Grave: Link
ERNEST GEORGE CLOUGHTON Link Memorial: Link
CHARLES COOK Link Grave: Link
CHARLES JOSEPH DIGBY Link Grave: Link
ERNEST DIGBY Link
WILLIAM DUKE Link Memorial: Link
ARCHIE FITCH Link Grave: Link
ARTHUR FITCH Link Memorial: Link
DICK FITCH Link Memorial: Link
GEORGE BENNETT FITCH Link Grave: Link
FREDERICK MANSFIELD Link Memorial: Link
CHARLES JONATHAN RAYNER Link Memorial: Link
HARRY SARGEANT Link Grave: Link
ALAN GEORGE TRITTON Link Memorial: Link
ALFRED REGINALD WARD Link Grave: Link
CHARLES HENRY WARD Link Grave: Link
ERNEST WRIGHT Link Grave: Link
HERBERT GEORGE WRIGHT Link Memorial: Link
LOUIS WALTER WRIGHT Link Grave: Link

1939 ~ 1945
ERIC SYDNEY BRIGGS Link Grave: Link
DAVID COARD Link Grave: Link
DAVID GORDON COUSINS Link Memorial: Link
ALAN HULL Link Grave: Link
RICHARD FRANK TOWNEND Link Memorial: Link
ALFRED BERNARD READ Link Grave: Link

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

"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


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.
Additional images of the Graves or Memorials will be added as they become available.

I am most grateful to Pat Watkinson and Terry Goddard for their research and photographs.

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

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