A follow up to Wakefield & Brind, posted 21 March 2020, especially for #WarGravesWeek. Three family headstones commemorating lost sons.
The ornate carving on Thomas Brind’s headstone has weathered rather better than the lettering. The Monuments Digital Record on the Aldbourne Heritage Centre website has the following entry:
[In memory ]/ Margaret Ann/ wife of/ Thomas Brind/ who died/ 12 November 1876/ aged 31/[ ]/Mary/ wife of/Thomas Brind/ [ 10 ] June [1924 ]/ aged [ 75 ]/ Thomas Brind/ died March [1927]/[ ] /[ ] / [inscription should also refer to Sergt Colin Brind, died in France 1914]
| HERBERT COLIN BRIND Serjeant 7697 | 1st Bn Wiltshire Regiment | Died 26 October 1914 | LE TOURET MEMORIAL Panel 33 and 34 |
The headstone for John and Martha Wakefield has a military badge at the top. I’m no expert but it seems likely to be the King’s Royal Rifles. Colour Sergeant Wakefield was, ‘undoubtedly the oldest living Rifleman at the time of his death’ in 1940 at the age of 94. He was also the oldest member of the Aldbourne & Baydon Royal British Legion. He joined the 60th Rifles in 1870. A newspaper report at the time of his death relates that John Wakefield took part in the ‘famous march from Kandahar to Kabul under Lord Roberts’. He called his house after that march and the name carries on in Aldbourne to this day. The headstone records the loss of the couple’s eldest son in France on 21 March 1918. Martha Wakefield died in 1928.
| F H WAKEFIELD Corporal 26450 | 2nd Bn Wiltshire Regiment | Died 21 March 1918 | SAVY BRITISH CEMETERY I. E. 7.France |
Finally, Thomas Brind’s grandson, Derek Thomas Brind, is commemorated on his parents’ headstone. Derek was the only son of Joseph Belcher and Annie Brind. The family were able to contact Derek’s own son in Australia a few years ago.
| DEREK THOMAS BRIND Sapper 1903539 | Royal Engineers | Died 24 August 1944 | BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY VIII. F. 20.France |
