Wooden Crosses
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"IN MEMORY
OF A GREAT COLONEL"
TRIBUTE OF BRIGADE
ON HIS CROSS
LIEUTENANT COLONEL EDWARD THESIGER FRANKLAND HOOD
Today Colonel Hood's grave marker, a wooden cross, hangs on a pillar in All Saints, Nettleham, Lincolnshire. Colonel Hood, officer commanding 38th Brigade, died of wounds in the Casualty Clearing Station at Ebblinghem. The dedication on the wooden cross says, 'In memory of a great Colonel'. His mother had the words repeated on his permanent headstone with the explanation that this was the tribute of his brigade.
HE DIED AS HE LIVED
BRAVE AND FEARLESS
LIEUTENANT ALAN SCRIVENER LLOYD
Lieutenant Lloyd was killed reconnecting the wire from his forward observation post, broken by a German bombardment. Some weeks after his death, Gunner John Manning, who had been with him when he died, placed a small hand-made, wooden sign on Lloyd's grave. On it he had written, "He died as he lived, brave and fearless, a true British hero". Lloyd' wife chose the first eight words for her husband's headstone inscription. The wooden sign is now part of the Imperial War Museum Collection, as are many of Lloyd's papers
Lloyd was a Quaker, educated at Leighton Park School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He fell out with his parents over his decision to enlist, but as he wrote in a letter to his father, "I'm the last person to be a jingo and hate flag wagging and Union Jack hurrahing etc but do feel that I might be useful, with my motor or without it, in case of attack by Germany and so I've offered my services.
HIS MEN WROTE ON ROUGH CROSS
"IN MEMORY OF
A VERY BRAVE BRITISH OFFICER"
SECOND LIEUTENANT LAMONT LIVINGSTONE PATERSON
The 'rough cross' was Lieutenant Paterson's original grave marker, a wooden cross. His mother, touched by his men's inscription, had it repeated on her son's permanent headstone. Lamont Paterson was a Canadian born and bred. He served with an English regiment and to his men was "a very brave British officer".
KILLED BY SHELLFIRE
WHEN ERECTING CROSSES
ON THE YPRES-MENIN ROAD
CAPTAIN JOHN DORAN MACDONALD
Captain Macdonald was marking graves with wooden crosses, part of the work the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries carried out to try to ensure that soldiers' graves were not lost but identifed and their position recorded.