Wife
BELOVED HUSBAND OF
M.E.VICARY
OF RICCARTON, NEW ZEALAND
PRIVATE HENRY WALTER VICARY
It is rare to see the words New Zealand in a personal inscription, not because few New Zealanders died in the war but because the New Zealand dead were not allowed headstone inscriptions. It was all a question of equality. The War Graves Commission made much of the fact that all the dead were to be treated equally whether they were generals or privates, princes or labourers. However, it then decided, primarily as a concession to the Roman Catholic community, that next-of-kin could be allowed to choose and pay for a brief personal inscription. The Canadian government felt that this was deeply divisive and made the decision that it would pay for all inscriptions. The New Zealand government also felt it was divisive and so made the decision that there would be no personal inscriptions on their graves.
Henry Vicary served in the Australian army. The family originally came from Ilfracombe in Devon but Henry was born "at sea to British parents". By 1914 Henry was a sailor, carpenter, labourer and engine driver living in Narradora, New South Wales. He was killed in action at the battle of Lone Pine sometime between 6th and 9th August 1915.
I don't know when he married, who he married or how the New Zealand connection comes about but by the time Henry Vicary's widow came to confirm his headstone inscription she was living at 9 Bowen St, Riccarton, New Zealand.
Henry's half brother, William Dallin Vicary, was killed in Mesoptamia on 8 March 1916 and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial.
HUSBAND OF HELEN N. BARCLAY
COBDEN ST., LOCHEE
DUNDEE, SCOTLAND
DRIVER JOHN EASTON
John Easton's next-of-kin was his wife Helen N Easton of 55 Cobden St, Lochee, Dundee. I am assuming that the Helen N Barclay mentioned in this inscription is the former Mrs Easton now remarried, or perhaps Barclay was her maiden name and she reverted to it. Either way, is it slightly odd that Driver Easton's widow should draw attention to this fact on her husband's gravestone?
THE DEAR HUSBAND OF
ETHEL DAVISON
RYHOPE COLLIERY
PEACE PERFECT PEACE
PRIVATE ALFRED DAVISON
Alfred Davison was a 'mine putter' who worked in Ryhope Colliery, Sunderland, the mining town where he was born and where his mother and father had been born before him. A mine putter was the person who pushed the wagons from the coal face to a horse or mechanical haulage road. In the 1911 Census Davison gave his occupation as 'water leader', someone who clears water from the mines. On 29 January 1916 he married Ethel Trusty and their son Robert Trusty Davison, was born on 9 January 1917. Alfred Davison died on gunshot wounds to his face and hands in No. 8 Stationary Hospital, Wimereux, France on 10 October 1918, just one month before the end of the war. I am grateful to Trevor Davison's Family History File on Ancestry for much of this information.
"Peace, perfect peace", a very popular inscription, is a quote from a hymn, which I have written about here
THIS GRAVE HOLDS ALL
THAT LIFE HELD DEAR
SERJEANT GEORGE EDWARD BRAIN MM
This eloquent inscription to Serjeant Brain was chosen by his wife, Margaret Jane. Her husband died of wounds at a field dressing station on the Ypres Salient and the impact of his death is summed up in these few words.
"STEEL TRUE AND BLADE STRAIGHT
THE GREAT ARTIFICER
MADE MY MATE"
LANCE CORPORAL GUY MELVILLE FARNDEN
This is a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's beautful poem 'My Wife':
Trusty, dusky, vivid, true,
With eyes of gold and bramble-dew,
Steel-true and blade-straight,
The great artificer
Made my mate.
Honour, anger, valour, fire;
A love that life could never tire,
Death quench or evil stir,
The mighty master
Gave to her.
Teacher, tender, comrade, wife,
A fellow-farer true through life,
Heart-whole and soul free
The august father
Gave to me.
Guy Farnden's wife, Edith, chose his incription, transferring the qualities Stevenson had bestowed on his beloved and greatly valued wife onto her own husband to whom she had been married for ten years.
YES
MY LOVE THE SAME
YOUR WIFE, ETHEL
PRIVATE JOHN SMITH
This is such a tender inscription, an assurance by a wife to her husband that her feelings for him are just the same as they always were. Ethel Smith lived in Newnham Road, Everdon, Daventry, Northamptonshire but even this hasn't enabled me to identify the couple any further.