https://upminsterhistory.net/2015/11/11/a-village-at-war-upminster-1914-18/ [Abridged from pages 32-42 of “Upminster: the Story of a Garden Suburb” by Tony Benton, with Albert Parish (self-published, 1996, revised & reprinted by Amberley Books, 2009, )]
It seems that the last Upminster soldier to lose his life during the war was Pte John Flack of the Essex Regiment whose death occurred on 5 November 1918, six days before the signing of the Armistice. Yet this was not the final serviceman’s death. Two months later, on 8 January 1919 Lt Cyril Horncastle of Freshfields, Gaynes Park died of pneumonia in Cairo: he had served in the Middle East for over three and a half years since 1915 seeing and surviving “much arduous service” and had never been home on leave.
Only slowly did parish life return to some kind of normality, as over a long period soldiers were progressively demobilised and returned to civilian life. Others were released from their enforced captivity as prisoners of war: in January 1919 for instance, the release of three local men, Lance-Cpl T Williams, Pte W Gorden and Driver H Nice, were reported. Belatedly, in late February, came the notification of the award of a Military Medal for Pte W Mansfield of the 26th Royal Fusiliers. By March 1919 only two cases remained at St Laurence Auxiliary Military Hospital and it was felt that the work of the unit, which had “attended upwards of 300 men sent to them from Colchester, Warley and elsewhere” could now draw to a close. The final phase of its activities was “a social gathering of an informal character … which evoked much gratitude from the patients”. On the 15 March the Grays and Tilbury Gazette reported a presentation made in recognition of work as Assistant Commander of the hospital by Miss Sophia C Reilly, daughter of Charles Reilly of High House.
The parish celebrated peace with a number of thanksgiving services but the parading of captured German guns in February 1919 was a more public expression of the victory celebrations. At the start of December 1918 the parish council proposed a permanent memorial to the war dead, with a public meeting arranged as a first step. Discussions began in earnest in February 1919 but there was no agreement about the form of the memorial. What was in no doubt was that public subscriptions would be needed to meet the costs but there was no great enthusiasm to dig deep for this. By 31 March only £31 had been raised and the headline ran “Is the war memorial in jeopardy?” A long debate at the annual parish meeting probably stirred more consciences but the fund crept up only slowly, reaching £100 by late May. Things were obviously not going well, for a new committee was elected. While Upminster was still considering what to do, other nearby parishes were already unveiling their memorials or other tributes. In December 1919, a full year after the question of a memorial was first raised, Upminster held a referendum of parishioners who were asked to choose between a memorial hall or a monumental memorial. Votes split evenly between the two options and as there were insufficient funds for the hall, the monument finally won the day. It was almost a further eight months before work was about to start only £360 of the estimated £610 cost had been raised.
A “roll of honour” was exhibited at St Laurence church in August 1919, listing the names of 43 war dead with local connections. By June 1920 the church was displaying a “substantially framed roll of honour in perpetual memory of those men resident in or closely associated with the parish”; this listed 58 names, not all of which were on the first list. On the last Sunday in September 1920 Upminster gained its first permanent memorial to those who fell, with the unveiling by Mr Henry Joslin JP DL of Gaynes of a brass commemorative plaque, naming 13 members of the Congregational church. Yet it was to be seven months before the parish memorial on Corbets Tey Road was unveiled. The public ceremony was finally held before a large crowd on Sunday 8 May 1921 with Brigadier-General C H De Rougemont DSO MVO performing the official duties. Those present would have formally witnessed for the first time memorial, designed by Mr C Harrap, with “a cross with Celtic ornamentation … rising from the massive Portland Stone cenotaph base”, standing on three York stone steps; inscribed on the base were to be seen the names of 66 men with Upminster connections. The deliberations of the organising committee headed by Mr J W Gunnell in drawing up the final list and arranging the inscription of these names have not been preserved. Yet if they had intended the memorial to be a worthy commemoration of the parish’s losses, then surely in the long time from conception to completion they could have taken more care in ensuring that the names of the fallen were accurately recorded, avoiding the several errors which somehow crept in.
