War Dead - Lance Corporal Algier Buckenham



War Dead - Needless deaths

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Lance Corporal ALGIER BUCKENHAM [1] 21274, 8th Bn., Border Regiment who died on 5 July 1916. Born North Pickenham, resident Swaffham. THIEPVAL MEMORIAL 



Edward Whetstone - Trowse



Norfolk Annals 1813



"Died, aged 80, Edward Whetstone, 44 years clerk of the parish of Trowse Newton.  He was originally a journeyman weaver, and had acquired some property.  He purchased and presented an organ which was placed in the church in 1803, and his remains were interred beneath the instrument".

There are numerous references to this man on the net and he seems to have lead an interesting life.

John 5:28-29

John 5:28-29

"John 5:28-29 (NIV). "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out-those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."

I have said what I think about Paul and his ‘Johnny come lately’ way of expounding the Gospel. Reactionary, retrogressive and punitive; Paul leads the way to segregation and foolishness. John on the other hand repeats again and again the idea of the Resurrection into ever lasting life. There are similarities between John and Paul in that life ahead is more important than this world. Rather than improve humanity on this plane of existence we have what has been called jam tomorrow. This ‘jam tomorrow’ is the idea of heavenly glory.

My alarm bells ring when I hear John banging on about the afterlife and especially when John starts to threaten  and admonish. John purveys the idea of the policeman that dwells within us and we have the idea of a threat developing. John is saying “do this or God will punish you!” This is hardly an adult way to enter into a relationship with God or to consider the ever after. John troubles me because although he sells the idea of love he clearly sells the idea of  threats.

Saint Margaret's Parish King's Lynn

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I am also hardly surprised at the idea of what constitutes “Good” and we can imagine that John  is saying “you have to believe what I'm saying to be seen as good!” So much for equal opportunities and social inclusion.

Whatever your view on Christianity, it is clear that John is offering the idea of the grave as the parking lot where we wait for the  resurrection. The grave is like a womb where we wait and sleep before rising to heaven or hell. The idea of hell is a threat and treating humanity like a child.

Aristocracy of the dead

Aristocracy of the dead

The tombs of the rich are often to be admired and marvelled at and then walked past as we consign their memory to temporary oblivion and that is arguably as it should be. The joy of English parish Churches is that there is much that is ordinary and 'in the vernacular'. England doesn’t have much in the cemetery that is showy and brash. That would never do! Instead, England has the sandstone stele monument or the Celtic/Cornish granite headstone that marks the seasons by referencing the moss and gentle decay whilst very slowly mouldering into the soil. On the Continent, it is very different and monuments seem to have surpassed the life of the individual they commemorate. The monument is greater than the man

Just as the venerable Sexton in “Dealings with the Dead” (1856) is clear that there is an aristocracy of the dead, it also clear that the English have maintained a fine and traditional indifference towards monuments and remained, instead, happy to provide either a low monument or no monument at all. The grass and the wildlife seem enough for us as we are gently layered into the ground to await our fate. There are clearly some grand monuments and the one at Saint Remigius at Hethersett is a great favourite of mine as it stands by the edge of the field as if about to escape into the landscape. There are great monuments in Churches and we all recognise the marble plaques about to crush us in their monumentality if they were ever to fall from their walls. They say much and also tell us nothing about the person they commemorate and, in reality, the large plaques aren’t very English at all.



Commemorated in Valetta

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Englishness is about recognising wealth, power and privilege and then doing absolutely nothing about it. Englishness is about understanding social prestige and admiring that prestige before going to the supermarket and buying beer for the hot summer we all hope for. It is that in the end we are really quite casual about titles and honours and we are also quite aware that the exteriors doesn’t always match the interior. The grand lady, wrapped in furs,  may be starving from a lack of breakfast and the great lord may have threadbare socks. Not everything is as it seems in this world or the next. The great monument may be built of shoddy materials and the lettering on the stone may be mispelt through ignorance or haste. The English understand these possibilities and naturally sneer at aristocracy whether that aristocracy is in blood, monuments or the grave. It’s all so much flim-flam at the end of the day.



Rural parish Church in North Norfolk

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 The tombs of the rich are admired that much is true although the English do not worship long at any one altar and we do not marvel over much at any one tomb. We do not over monumentalise the folly of human lives and we do not often deify the departed. It is hard to worship at a tomb when the occupant of the tomb was as mortal as us and had the same foibles and follies. So, let people have their aristocracy in the grave and have their 30 seconds of adulation as we walk past before we walk away and forget them until the next visit along with the next sunrise.

Private G Butters - Ashill




Private G Butter - Ashill

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