Included within Church Grade II* Listing:
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Link (p35)
IWM War Memorials Archive No. 223109
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Archive Link )
War Memorials Online Ref #: 169021
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Mounted on the inside south wall of St John the Evangelist Church is this Memorial to
William Montagu Hughes-Hughes.
A rectangular brass plaque with black and red lettering, decorative border and Welsh regimental badge measuring 820mm x 460mm. Manufactured by Messrs Gawthorp and Sons.
The text reads:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF
WILLIAM MONTAGU HUGHES~HUGHES,
CAPTAIN 9TH BATT. THE WELCH REGIMENT
ELDER SON OF
MONTAGU EDWARD HUGHES-HUGHES OF LEEZ PRIORY.
BORN APRIL 5TH 1884.
KILLED IN ACTION AT GIVENCHY 25TH SEPTEMBER 1915.
BURIED IN THE CEMETERY FESTUBERT.
DULCE EST DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI†.
(It is sweet and glorious to die for one's country)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Casualty Details:
Link and Memorial Certificate:
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Photograph of Grave and Cemetery:
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Son of Montagu Edward and Lydia Margaret Hughes-Hughes, of Leez Priory, Chelmsford.
Late of Hertford College, Oxford. M.A., and of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law.
Also see "His Body Rests in a Soldier's Grave" by Julia Able Smith as published in the
Great & Little Leighs Magazine, November 2005 :
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For more information on St. Johns:
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and on Leez Priory:
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TL7018 : Leez Priory, Hartford End, Essex
I am most grateful to Pat Watkinson for her research; Julia Able Smith;
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and The War Graves Photographic Project.
†Dulce Est Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori is a line from the
Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes (III.2.13) see:
Link
The Welch Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1969 where
"Welch" is an archaic spelling of "Welsh". The motto under the crest
"Gwell angau na Chywilydd" translates to "Better Death than Dishonour".
For more details, see:
Link
"They shall grow not old as we who are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them."
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen
"When you go home, tell them of us and say, for their tomorrow we gave our today."
US 14th Army War Memorial, Kohema, Burma