Included within Church Grade 1 Listing:
Link and
Link (p36)
IWM War Memorials Archive No. 45599
Link (
Archive Link )
War Memorials Online Ref #: WMO170452
Link
Mounted on the inside north wall of the Nave of St Mary the Virgin Church is
this Memorial to Alan George Tritton.
A rectangular brass plaque, 1010mm x 510mm, with guilloche border;
an inscription on the right hand panel and on the left panel the
Coldstream Guards¹ Garter Star² surrounded by Battle Honours and
surmounted by a Crown. The incised inscriptions are in black and red lettering.
The right hand panel reads:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND TO THE DEAR MEMORY OF
CAPTAIN ALAN GEORGE TRITTON,
COLDSTREAM GUARDS,
YOUNGEST SON OF
JOSEPH HERBERT AND LUCY JANE TRITTON OF LYONS HALL.
HE SERVED IN THE BOER WAR 1900 - 1902,
AND IN THE EUROPEAN WAR 1914.
KILLED IN ACTION NEAR BÉTHUNE.
BORN JANUARY 28 1882. DIED DECEMBER 26 1914.
TWICE "MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES"
and below the Garter Star in the left hand panel:
NULLI SECUNDUS
(Second to None)
HIS BODY RESTS
IN A SOLDIER'S GRAVE NEAR
THE VILLAGE OF LE TOURET
"TILL HE COME."
Commonwealth War Graves Commission Casualty Details:
Link and Memorial Certificate:
Link
Photograph of Grave, Captain Tritton, Left Panel and Cemetery:
Link
Also see "His Body Rests in a Soldier's Grave" by Julia Able Smith as published in the Great & Little Leighs Magazine, November 2005 :
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
¹ The Coldstream Guards, is a part of the Guards Division, Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. It is the
oldest regiment in the Regular Army in continuous active service, originating in Coldstream, Scotland in 1650
when General George Monck founded the regiment. It is one of two regiments of the Household Division that can
trace its lineage to the New Model Army, the other being the Blues and Royals.
For more details, see:
Link (
Archive Link ) and
Link
² The Garter Star motto "Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense" translates as "Evil unto him who thinks evil of it".
For more details see:
Link
Full details on the Great Leighs War Memorial at St Marys, which also lists Captain Tritton, is available here:
TL7315 : War Memorial, St Mary the Virgin Church, Great Leighs, Essex
and for more information on St. Marys:
Link
I am most grateful to Pat Watkinson for her research; Julia Able Smith;
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, BBC Television and The War Graves Photographic Project.
"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