Blackmore Area Local History

Stondon Massey Remembers The Great War

The War Memorial for Stondon Massey is on the north wall of the church.  In the following passage, written by the then Rector, Revd. Edward Reeve, (himself a keen historian) we learn of the possibly arbitrary nature in which the names of those who died in the Great War are commemorated.

"We did not move away very quickly at Stondon, but the matter was brought forward at the Parish Meeting in the spring of 1921, and a special meeting of Parishioners was in consequence summoned on Saturday evening April 16th It was decided to erect an oaken Tablet … in keeping with the old oak screen and Jacobean pulpit and reading desk. "

“The Suffragan Bishop of Barking (Dr. Inskip) most kindly agreed to come and dedicate the memorial when it should be ready for the unveiling, and the ceremony was finally arranged for Tuesday Dec 13th.

The cost of the Memorial … was provided by voluntary subscriptions, practically every house in the village contributing something."

“The six names are all that we could fairly include, though Ernest Maynard, a Blackmore lad who worked in the Rectory garden here up to the time of enlisting, was well known, and almost eligible; and Fred Garnham, who fell in the Mons retreat, had been brought up in the village, but had married and joined from Radley Green, Writtle.  R J Ellis was living at Norton [Mandeville] when he died, but was included as being a true Stondon lad, and with his old parents still in the parish” [ERO T/P 188/3 f860-863].

Revd Reeve's notes provide a valuable insight to his local village in time of war. The notes on these men's lives come from his manuscript..

  ? = Incomplete information.  Can you help? Please E mail