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Dedicated to others from Occold who also gave their lives in the Service of their Country.
We honour all these men and the suffering left in the wake of their untimely deaths.
George Mathew COOKDied on the 8th January 1919 and was buried back in Suffolk. Others (like my grandfather) came back with wounds and disease acquired in the war and died far from the front in convalescence. We will probably never know the total tally of deaths caused by the Great War even for little Occold. Some soldiers stayed in France until the final German surrender (the 28th June 1919 ‘Peace of Paris') was signed. Deaths and injuries due to unexploded ordinance have continued right through to modern times. This apparently is the reason that some Norfolk churchyards describe it as the 1914-1919 war. |
Albert Edward EVERSONDied on the 1st October 1918 (who at just 19 is the youngest Occold death that we know of) as the ‘impregnable' Hindenburg line was crumbling before a combined Belgium, French, Commonwealth & US onslaught. On the same day, Ludendorf asked the German government to negotiate an armistice. The eventual armistice on the 11th September did not see the complete end of the suffering and death. |
Stanley Noah COOK &
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Ezekiel DURRANTDied on the 9th August 1916 as an attack on Guillemont was being driven back. |
Nathaniel Augustus COOKThe Western Front was not the only war zone involving local lads. Nathaniel Augustus COOK died 31st December 1916 during the Baghdad advance and is commemorated in the War Cemetery at Basra. Note - Saddam Hussein had this cemetery moved brick by brick to a new site in the desert. |
Herbert William JOHNSON &
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Nicholas Herbert TODDDied on the 7th October 1916 as the Fourth Army attacked along the whole front from Les Boeufs to Destremont Farm. He was born in Occold into an extraordinary family. He was awarded an MA at Keble College, Oxford. Keble College was a new college set up by the ‘Oxford Movement' - the Anglo-Catholic revivalists and most of its early graduates became CoE ministers. The Todd family of learned clergyman, originally from Dublin (origin of Dublin Road perhaps?) were at its centre. Nicholas & his father, the Rev. Horatio Lovell Todd from Cornwall, were clearly part of this proselytising movement. His brother was a Professor of Music and his sister a Theologian. Being the only prominent Anglo-Catholics in the Church of Ireland must have meant that they were used to making principled stands. Nicholas could no doubt have ‘pulled strings' to obtain a privileged or safe position in the Army but seems to have chosen to be a 'simple Tommy'. His mother, Frances, was born in Riga which was in Russia at that time but is the capital of Latvia today. A book "Nicholas H TODD: Poems and Plays" was published posthumously in 1917 by Jackson and Sedbergh Preparatory School in Cumbria where he was a master for ten years before he signed up. Most of the poetry refers to his life at the school and Alan comments that "It's almost a 'Mr Chips' story". |
Frank Carter WOODSHe was unlucky enough to die on the last day of the Somme Offensive (18th November). Son of Alfred and Laura Woods of The Cedars. Photo by kind permission of his grand-daughter Mrs Ellis at Williams Barn, Benningham Grange Farm. |
William POTTERWas a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery and may have signed up with William BROWN. He was the son of Arthur and Mary Potter who lived in Wingfield Road . The military records have him born in 1889 but the 1901 Census has him as eight years old. He must have been injured in France and repatriated as the Occold Burial Register shows he was buried in Occold cemetery on 6th May 1918, aged 25 years - hence born 1893. His gravestone - including that of his parents - has recently been uncovered as part of the Suffolk Gravestones Photographic Project. See Cemetery Names, R2, left hand side - W & ACM Potter and the Burial Register. |
Of the war dead born in Occold it appears that Reginald LISTER was the brother of James but Reginald is commemorated on the Redlingfield Memorial and was living in Chelmsford when he enlisted. Hubert Chaston GEDNY is something of a puzzle but the Gedny family were living in the White House in 1891 and had a niece - governess called Bessie CHASTON. He was born 1893 to parents Benjamin Chaston GEDNY and mother Julia Roberta CHASTON and living in Thornham Magna (next door to the Four Horseshoes) in 1901. Hubert is commemorated on Bedingfield memorial and Bessie was born in Bedingfield. Added 10 Jan 11 from A Hedges..... |