"INGHAM WAR MEMORIALS"



St. Bartholomew's, Ingham


Ingham men are commemorated on three war memorials, the traditional war memorial by the village hall in Culford, where the dead of Culford Estate ( Culford, West Stow, Ingham and Wordwell) are named and within the church of St Bartholomew, Ingham, on a decorated plaque.This is the plaque here. Also, in the Churchyard, in front of nine CWGC headstones is a Memorial Cross commemorating men who died in Ampton Red Cross Hospital and one Ingham man from 1939-1945.

On the left hand (north) wall of the church is a gilt effect mosaic plaque with a central cross in mother of pearl flanked by the badge of the Suffolk Regiment and the Royal Flying Corps pilot's wings. it honours firstly Captain Felix Wyatt, son of the incumbent, and his friends and neighbours who fell in the Great War. It lists the ten other men, all Privates, by first and surname and their date of death and in date order of their death.


The plaque has engraved on the left half

TO THE BELOVED MEMORY OF
CAPTAIN FELIX WYATT
5TH BATTN SUFFOLK REGT AND
ROYAL FLYING CORPS
THE ONLY SON OF J.D.K.MAHOMED M.A.
RECTOR OF THIS PARISH AND
OF EMMA HIS WIFE HE WAS KILLED
IN ACTION FLYING IN FRANCE
2ND JULY 1917 AGED 28 YEARS
BURIED AT FINS NEAR BAPAUME.

and on the right hand half:-
AND TO
THE HONOURED MEMORY
OF HIS FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS
WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR.
PRIVATES EDWARD OSBORNE 6TH MAY 1915,
BERTIE KING 22ND AUGUST 1915,
M. GASKOIN EDGELEY 16TH MAY 1916,
WILLIAM HENRY SEELEY 20TH JULY 1916,
FRANK SMITH 6TH JULY 1917,
CHARLES DENNIS 12TH JULY 1917,
FRANK FENTON 22ND AUGUST 1917 AND,
WILLIAM BETTS 3RD SEPTEMBER 1918,
WALTER CHAPMAN 3RD NOVEMBER 1918,
BERTIE OSBORNE 15TH NOVEMBER 1918.


Also, just inside the door, at the rear of the nave is a Roll of Honour, glazed, in an oak frame with a small shelf above and below. This lists St Bartholomew's parishioners who served in the Great War, 1914-1919. Listed in two columns, one headed by Felix Wyatt, the other by the Reverend C. Hankin Turvin, it has a total of 46 men who served during WW1. Apart from the two already mentioned, all the remaining names are listed in surname order, with just first initials, their units, and their fate, whether killed in action, died of wounds or wounded.




Around the base is incised:-
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN PERPETUAL MEMORY OF - SOLDIERS WHO DIED IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919. - 8 OF THEM DIED IN AMPTON RED CROSS HOSPITAL - AND ONE OF THEM IN THE LEWISHAM HOSPITAL.


THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE. ECCLUS:XLV.44
PTE E SMITH 1st GLOSTERS 23.II.1915...PTE R DILLON 1ST R.SCOTS 4.IV.1915...PTE T.JASPER, 2ND GLOSTERS 30.VI.1915

PTE W JOHNSON, 1ST R.W.SURREYS 19.III.1916...PTE R BUSSELL 56TH AUS.IMP.FORCE 25.VII.1916...PTE R SMITH 8TH SEAFORTHS 29.VIII.1916
PTE B M PARSON 4TH YORKS 23.IV.1918...SGT W.G.S.HOLLAND AUS.F.ART. 1.XI.1918...PTE S AMES 127TH LAB.COY 22.I.1919

This all came about as the burial ground in Ampton had insufficient space for all the 40 who died at the Red Cross Hospital there. The opportunity also came to commemorate at least three Ingham men. The vicar at Ingham only charged for burial fees and gave permission for these graves to be enclosed in a special Soldiers Plot and one large monumental cross to be erected with the soldiers' names engraved on it. Bury Free Press 22 November 1919:-
OF IMPERISHABLE MEMORY - MEMORIALS TO THE FORTY SOLDIERS WHO DIED AT AMPTON - SUFFOLK RED CROSS HOSPITAL'S WORK PERPETUATED

Massive Memorials erected at Ingham Churchyard; its base weights 2 1/2 tons
"They fought and died for their King and their country.No man can do more"
Thus Sir Courtenay Warner, Bart., C.B.,M.P., Lord Lieutenant of the County, after unveiling memorials at Ampton Chuch and Ingham Churchyard on Saturday afternoon in memory of the forty soldiers who died at the Suffolk Hospital, Ampton Hall, that splendid institution the work of which has been fully described in these columns. Of the 6,568 patients admitted to the hospital 40 passed away: eight of them rest in the peaceful God's acre in the adjoining parish of Ingham and with these lies one more soldier who died in a London hospital (there is a list of all 40 men) ...the rest is an exceedingly long list of those presents and hymns etc. One interesting snippet is that the graves area was at that time enclosed within a stone kerb .

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They shall grow not old, as we that 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.