Overlooked, but not forgotten
These three war memorials in church are often overlooked in favour of the large memorial in the churchyard. Each tells a story of lost youth.
Above left is the altar cross dedicated to 19-year-old brothers John Dyott Willmot and Robert Dyott Willmot, killed two years apart in WW1. A hundred years of cleaning is erasing the inscription (second left). Their father chaired the committee which built the outdoor memorial.
Above centre is the vicar’s desk dedicated to Mary and Doreen Barton, the two civilians killed in the Second World War, and top right the carved wood panel in the lady chapel dedicated to RAF Corporal William Lucas. A small desk hides the bottom right carved inscription (above right).
Coleshill’s WW1 story was four years in the telling. Coleshill Remembers WW1 Group’s research of the fallen provides an unparalled insight into Coleshill’s history and to the impact the deaths of the soldiers and sailors had on our community, such as the three Basketfield brothers. Herbert, William and Arthur died in the October of three consecutive years. Arthur and Herbert died two years apart to the day.
Members of the group held a vigil at the war memorial on the 100th aniversary of the soldier or sailor’s death, beginning with the first to fall, Private William Gallagher, who was killed in action on 11 October 1914. The vigils were sometimes attended by now distant family and nearly always with a few residents who turned up to remember them.
The final paragraphs of their stories were written at a vigil to mark the death of the last Coleshill soldier to die in the conflict on 22 November 1918, Charles Croydon Crooke. His memorial is in the cemetery close to two other WW1 dead, who are also mentioned among the names above. A small weather-beaten wooden cross at its base shows someone still cares.
Like the scores of vigils before, his service record was told, Rupert Brooke’s The Soldier recited, and a half-muffled church bell tolled 100 times to acknowledge his death.
Coleshill now has a full record of those who died in WW1 as a result of the work of the group. Their names are played (above) during an audio-visual presentation in church on Remembrance Sunday. The list also includes those killed in WW2, Afghanistan and Bosnia.
The research showed that one death on the Parochial School memorial was incorrect. He survived the war and died some time after.
Other town memorials are on a restored plaque at Sacred Heart and St Teresa church and a statue in the grounds there; Coleshill Grammar School; and on the Parochial School memorial in the market hall.