Eamont Bridge and Barton War Memorials
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| 1. Eamont Bridge War Memorial, Cumbria (Located close to "King Arthur's Round Table") [This is a memorial for the Boer War and WW2] |
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| 2. Parish Church of St. Michael, Barton, Cumbria (An historic church dating back to the 12th Century) |
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| 3. The lych gate of St. Michael's Parish Church, Barton. (Unveiled in 1924 to remember the locals who died in WW1) [There is another WW1 memorial inside the church] |
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| 4. Headstone of Flight Sergeant J.E. Williams, R.A.F. (Died 13 July 1942) [Buried in the churchyard of St Michael's, Barton] ______________________________________________ |
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posted by ritsonvaljos at 8:14 am
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Additional information
Eamont Bridge War Memorial
Eamont Bridge is a relatively small village a short distance to the south of Penrith in what is now eastern Cumbria. The village name comes from the bridge over the River Eamont which for much of its length was the boundary between the former ‘Twin Counties’ of Lakeland – Cumberland and Westmorland.
Eamont Bridge has long been used to soldiers passing through the village following the main road between Penrith, Carlisle and Scotland to the north and Lowther Castle and Park (principal seat of the Earls of Lonsdale) a little to the south. The village war memorial stands at the southern end of the village at the junction between the main road to Lowther and Barton [Photograph No. 1].
An unusual feature of this memorial is that it commemorates the Boer War and the Second World War but not the First World War. Two further names are engraved on the base of the memorial. One is that of W. (William) Grant Stevenson, R.S.A. (1849 – 1919), the famous Scottish sculptor and portrait painter who designed this work. The second is that of W. Grisenthwaite of Grisenthwaite’s Victoria Monumental works at Penrith, where the monument was executed.
This memorial is situated near the historic spot known as “King Arthur’s Round Table”, a Neolithic earthwork henge dating from about 2000 B.C. believed to have been a sacred meeting place during pre-historic times. Subsequently, the henge was believed to be the jousting area for the knights of the legendary King Arthur, the British warrior king of the late 5th and early 6th centuries. This is in the area seen to the right of the memorial in Photograph No. 1. The war memorial was first unveiled for the Boer War on 24 October 1901, with the Second World War names being added much later.
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Inscription on Eamont Bridge War Memorial
The inscription on the front of the war memorial (for the Boer War) reads as follows:
“At that crisis in history of the empire when volunteers were invited for active service in the South African war this village sent four, John Hindson, William Todd, Arthur Warwick of the 24th Coy. (Westmorland & Cumberland) Imperial Yeomanry, & William Hindson, of the Volunteer Coy. of the Border Regiment.
Of these,
JOHN HINDSON & WILLIAM TODD
Were Killed in Action at Fabers Put
30th May, 1900”
……………
“This monument was erected by public subscription
On this historic site granted by Lord Brougham and Vaux, 1901.
Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori”
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The left-hand side of the plinth has the inscription for the local Second World War casualties:
“Second World War
1939 – 1945
Clarence Smith
Royal Norfolk Regiment
Wilfred Warwick
King’s Own Scottish Borderers
Thomas Stanley Poulson Warwick
Airborne Division” *
* [N.B. ‘Airborne is spelt ‘Airbourne’ on the memorial]
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Barton Parish War memorial
A short distance to the west of Eamont Bridge is the parish church of Barton, dedicated to St Michael [Photograph No. 2]. Parts of the church, principally the nave and the tower date from the 12th Century. Here, the parish memorial is the wooden lych gate which was unveiled in 1924 to remember the locals who had lost their lives in the 1914 – 1918 war [Photograph No. 3].
Inside the church nave is a wooden memorial tablet listing the ten names of those killed in WW1, plus one for Lieut. (Acting Major) De Courcey Parry, killed in action at Senlis 5 April 1918.
Engraved above the lych gate is the following inscription:
“I am the Resurrection and the Life.
To the Glory of God and to perpetuate the names of those of this parish who made the Supreme Sacrifice 1914 – 1918, this gate is erected.”
The following names are engraved inside the lych gate:
Private H.W. BELL, A & S Highlanders, Hooge, 10 May 1915
Private R. BERRY, 1st Border Regt., Dardanelles, 19 August 1915
Sapper T.D. JAMES, R. Engineers, Fauquissart, 25 September 1915
Private E. DIXON, 3rd Coldstream Gds., Somme, 15 September 1916
Private F. BERRY, 8th Border Regt., Ypres, 22 July 1917
Private J.S. BRANTHWIATE, L/pool Scottish, Wieltz, 2 August 1917
Lance Corporal J. BIRKETT, 20th Mancr. Regt., Zellebeke, 26 October 1917
Private J.W. CASS, Household Batt., Cambrai, 8 November 1917
Lieut. (Acting Major) D.G. De Courcy Parry, R.F.A., Senlis, 5 April 1918
Private A. HINDSON, A & S Highlanders, Cambrai, 22 October 1918
………….
Although there is no parish memorial for the Second World War there is a WW2 airman buried in the churchyard [Photograph No. 4]. This is grave of Sergeant (Flight Engineer) John Ellis Williams, No. 7 Squadron, R.A.F. who died on 13 July 1942.
Below is the CWGC citation for Sergeant John E. Williams, R.A.F.:
Name: WILLIAMS, JOHN ELLIS
Rank: Sergeant
Trade: Flight Engineer
Service No: 573144icated
Date of Death: 13/07/1942
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force, 7 Squadron.
Grave Reference: Plot 3. Grave P. 1.
Cemetery: BARTON (ST. MICHAEL) CHURCHYARD, Westmorland (now Cumbria)
Additional information:
(Next of kin not listed)
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Dedication
Dedicated to those from the Eamont Bridge and Barton area of Cumbria who have lost their lives while serving in the Armed Forces since the Boer War.
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“If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. …”
(Rupert Brooke, ‘The Soldier’)
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