We are commemorating Remembrance Sunday this month with a focus on the World War I Collection in the Lydiard Archives.
The First World War collection brings together photographs, objects, diaries and letters that reveal the impact of the war on the community of Lydiard Tregoze, from a photograph of Private John Titcombe of Hook, taken in France and printed as a postcard, to cigarette silks that were popular collectibles at the start of the War.
The World War I memorial book at St Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze, contains the names of eighty-four men of the Parish of Lydiard Tregoze who fought in World War I. The volume records the regiments they fought with and records the death of 11 men while on active service.
An article by Malcolm Titcombe gives further details of both the memorial book and the war memorial at Hook. As well as serving in the Wiltshire Regiments, the men of the parish represented a wide variety of regiments and companies within the forces and fought in an extraordinary number of theatres of war from France to the Dardanelles to the Persian Gulf. Several were in cavalry regiments; Algernon Love served in the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Five men served in the Navy or merchant navy, and one, Walter Hughes, in the newly-created Royal Air Force as an observer. Two enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and one officer served with the Persia Rifles. https://www.thelydiardarchives.org.uk/item/our-war-memorials
Prince Harry opened the Field of Remembrance in the Walled Garden at Lydiard Park on November 10th November 2010.