Remembrance is not just for one day of the year – Denis Payne discovers how the final resting places of some of the Village’s fallen servicemen are being preserved by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission all year round… and for future generations.
Every November there is a service at the Village’s Peace Memorial on Remembrance Sunday. It is always well attended by young and old alike, uniformed and not. As part of that service, we join together in saying, “At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them”.
Locally, we remember the 75 people whose names are on the memorial: 41 from World War I, and 34 from World War II. Service people from our villages fought all over the world in the two world wars – and tragically many did not come home.
Sadly, there is no known grave for many, perhaps just a commemoration on a memorial somewhere – perhaps at Thiepval, or Basra, or Jerusalem or elsewhere.
But what about those with known graves: How are we remembering them? We have five war graves for British service people in the Village, plus one Belgian one. Godfried Reinardts was an injured Belgian soldier, one of many who came to the village to recuperate – as detailed in the Village Society’s publication: The Home Front. Sadly, he never made it home and died here in 1917 and is buried in the civic cemetery on Mill Lane.
Of the five other graves, one is in the church yard at St Andrew’s, Histon; and there are two in St Andrew’s, Impington and two in the civic cemetery.
A duty of care in return for their service
I visited the grave of Corporal Grimwood in St Andrew’s Histon – who died in WW1 – and noticed that it was beginning to look worn. This raised an interesting question about how we continue to honour their sacrifice today.
Caring for their resting places seems the very least we can do, but whose job is it to look after these graves? The Church? The Parish Council? Or maybe the British Legion?
I contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). I had always thought that they just looked after the major cemeteries in France, Belgium and other parts of the world, but to my surprise they told me that a Commission staff member had visited the churchyard and inspected the headstone of Cpl Grimwood in June 2025, and determined that they would continue to monitor it regularly and take necessary action if its condition changes.
The criteria for qualifying as a Commonwealth War Grave is clear from the commission’s website. It states that serving military personnel would be “commemorated irrespective of the cause or circumstances of their death”.
The commission is responsible for looking after all the war graves in the village. This is good news as hopefully they will never be neglected or forgotten and remain a place where we can reflect on the sacrifice and death others made in the past for our freedoms today.
Omitted but not forgotten
There are however two other fallen servicemen whose names do not feature on either the Roll of the Fallen or the Peace Memorial. This is something I hope to pursue with the British Legion and the Parish Council for the future but, in the meantime, allow me to introduce them:
- F/Lt William J Hunt, who was killed aged 31 in 1942 in his Bristol Beaufighter as it was scrambled to intercept German bombers, is buried in the civic cemetery. He was an experienced pilot with over 1,300 hours flying experience but was most likely brought down by a cover having been left, accidentally, on the tailplane of his aircraft.
- Driver Russell L Meadows, who died in 1946, is buried in St Andrew’s Impington in a family plot. He’d been born at Home Farm in 1927 (so was 18 when he died). He joined the army in November 1945 and had been transferred to a training battalion. His records show this comment: “hard worker, has shown some signs of power of leadership”. He was taken ill and died in Chesterfield Hospital just 72 days after joining up.
People just like us
Perhaps the War Graves Commission sums it up best on their website when they assert: “We believe that each one of those we commemorate were people like us, with their own ambitions, hopes, and dreams. It is our duty and privilege to care for their graves and memorials and keep their stories alive”.
It is indeed a duty and a privilege, and we will remember them!
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website can be searched by memorial location and service personnel name.
READ ALSO: “At the going down of the sun and in the morning… we will remember them” | HI HUB; Set in stone: The story of the Peace Memorial | HI HUB
