Included within Church Grade 1 Listing:
Link and
Link (p36)
IWM War Memorials Archive No.22246
Link (
Archive Link )
War Memorials Online Ref #: WMO130881
Link
Roll of Honour
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 2018:
Link
ERNEST GEORGE CLOUGHTON D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link
CHARLES COOK D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
CHARLES JOSEPH DIGBY D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
ERNEST DIGBY D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
WILLIAM DUKE D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link
ARCHIE FITCH D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
ARTHUR FITCH † D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
DICK FITCH † D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
GEORGE BENNETT FITCH D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
FREDERICK MANSFIELD D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link
CHARLES JONATHAN RAYNER D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link
HARRY SARGEANT D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
ALAN GEORGE TRITTON † D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link
ALFRED REGINALD WARD D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
CHARLES HENRY WARD D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
ERNEST WRIGHT D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
HERBERT GEORGE WRIGHT D:
Link C:
Link M:
Link 2018:
Link B:
Link
LOUIS WALTER WRIGHT D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link 2018:
Link
1939 ~ 1945
ERIC SYDNEY BRIGGS D:
Link C:
Link G:
Link
DAVID COARD D:
Link (
Archive 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;
G:/M: the Grave or Memorial Inscription photograph;
2018: November 2018 Memorial Signs (see below), and
B: Beaulieu, Springfield, Chelmsford Memorial road signs (see below).
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
† In the 2014 BBC series "Britain's Great War", Jeremy Paxman describes the early loss of
Captain Alan Tritton and brothers Privates Richard (Dick) and Arthur Fitch,
and speaks with their niece Valerie Frost.
The BBC has very kindly provided this video clip:
Link
© BBC MMXIV Reproduced with Permission
In November 2018, to mark the Centenary of the end of World War One,
memorial signs were erected, where possible, close to their former home.
At Gt Leighs Village Hall there was a display of CWGC Certificates:
Link
On 1st November 2018, ITV Anglia TV included a report in their evening
Local News and has very kindly provided this video clip:
Medium Quality:
Link High Quality:
Link
© ITV Anglia 2018 Reproduced with Permission
The Beaulieu housing estate in Springfield, Chelmsford has commemorated members
of the armed services who gave their lives in World War I, by way of road signs detailing
their unit and the date they were lost. Great Leighs casualties are remembered in
Fitch Close
Link and Wright Crescent
Link.
Information on the Memorial Plaque inside St Marys dedicated to Captain Tritton is available here:
TL7315 : Memorial Plaque to Captain Alan George Tritton
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,
BBC Television 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
For details of the nearby Little Leighs War Memorial, see:
TL7116 : War Memorial, St John the Evangelist Church, Little Leighs, Essex
"They shall grow not 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