The War Memorial

On the corner of the wall of Langham Hall, facing west, is a tablet memorial to Langham’s men who died in the First World War. Fifteen names are listed.

William Barnes

William Barnes was born in Langham on 17 March 1896 and baptised on 11 October 1897, the son of William and Alice Jane Barnes of 26 The Street. He was the seventh eldest of ten children, and before joining up worked as a farm labourer. By 1911 his father had died, leaving William’s mother a widow.

He enlisted in the Norfolk Regiment and was transferred to the 5th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, with the rank of lance-corporal. William was killed in the Battle of Havrincourt on 12 September 1918, aged 22, two months before the end of the war. He is commemorated on a memorial in Pas de Calais, France. There is no known grave.

Frederick Sydney Bird

Frederick Bird was born in Langham in 1895, the son of Earl Bird and Ann Elizabeth Ives of 15 The Street. In the 1901 census he is listed as resident here with his family.

In the 1911 census he is shown as aged 16, a farm labourer, living with his brother-in-law, Richard Greenacre, at Westgate. His father died in the Great Snoring Union Workhouse and was buried at Langham on 30 November 1914.

Frederick moved to London and enlisted as Rifleman 2075 in the 12th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (The Rangers).

He was mortally wounded at Ypres and died on 30 April 1915, aged 20. He is buried in Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, Nord, France.

Frederick ‘Fred’ Peter Burton

Fred Burton was born in Langham, the son of Peter and Louisa Burton. He enlisted at Stratford, Essex, as a private in the 8th Battalion, Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, and was killed in the assault at Loos on 26 September 1915, aged 26. There is no known grave; he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial at Pas de Calais, France.

John Henry Burton

John Burton was born in Langham on 11 June 1893 to Isaac and Jessie Burton of East Street, as Holt Road was once known. He was a bachelor and a labourer by trade. His family emigrated to Canada and at Oakville he joined Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (Eastern Ontario Regiment), being attested and passed fit on 29 January 1916. His attestation paper records him as being 5’6” tall, with a medium complexion, brown eyes and hair, his religion being given as ‘Church of England’.

Suffering from tonsillitis, he was admitted to hospital at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 30 January 1917 and discharged on 13 February, presumably after a tonsillectomy.

On 14 March he signed his will, leaving everything to his mother, and boarded the R M S Carpathia at Halifax on 10 April 1917. The ship sailed the next day and arrived in England on the 22nd.

On 5 July 1918, serving in France, he was recorded as ‘wounded and dangerously ill’, from a groin wound and a fractured femur. He died the following day, aged 26.

John is buried in the St Hilaire Cemetery Extension, Frevent, Pas de Calais. His military papers may be viewed here.

Robert Albert Burton

Robert Burton was born in Langham to Elizabeth Burton and the late Francis Ives Burton. He enlisted at Norwich as a private in 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers, of whom 16,000 were killed in action and many more wounded.

He was killed aged 23 on 29 March, 1918, during the German offensive known as Operation Michael (Unternehmen Michael), in the vicinity of Saint-Quentin, France. There is no known grave; he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Pas de Calais, France.

William Albert Alfred Burton

William Burton was born in Langham to the late Robert and Agnes Burton, his birth being registered in the fourth quarter of 1895 in the Walsingham Registration District. In the 1911 census he is given as aged 15, a farm labourer resident at The Green, Wighton.

He enlisted at Norwich in the 2nd Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, with the rank of private, and was killed in action, aged 20, on 22 April 1916 during the siege of Kut al Mara in Iraq, then called Mesopotamia.

There is no known grave; he is commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq.

James Robert Crane

James Crane was born in Langham in 1883 to Henry Crane and Martha Smith. The family moved from the village before war broke out; in the 1911 Census he is listed as resident at 19 Kay Street, Chorlton upon Medlock, Manchester, and working as a baker.

He enlisted as a private in the 17th Battalion, Manchester Regiment.

Then the rain came.

The badly cratered battlefield and shell holes began to fill with water and the position became increasingly difficult as men clung to the sides of shell-holes and hastily constructed trenches in an attempt not to drown. The assault quickly ran out of momentum.

The 17th Battalion were finally relieved on the morning of the 1st August [1917] and proceeded to Zillebeke where the roll was called. The Battalion’s casualties in the action were: 2 officers killed and 8 wounded or missing and 19 other ranks killed and 146 wounded or missing. The Battalion marched to Château Segard to reorganise.

After a series of moves during the month of August, the Battalion relieved the 14th Australian Battalion, south of Messines, on the 28th. This tour lasted until the 3rd September when the Battalion marched to Kia-Ora camp at Kemmel and provided working parties for the Royal Engineers.

On the 12th September, the Battalion relieved the 2nd Royal Scots Fusiliers as support battalion at Torreken Farm and on the 22nd moved into the line, relieving the 2nd Bedfords in the Hollebeke area.

James was killed in action on 26 September 1917, aged 33. He is buried in Pond Farm Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Page Ernest Crane

James Crane’s younger brother was born in Langham in March 1886. The 1901 census shows him as a farm boy. He married Ethel Jane Vincent on 21 November, 1910, at Sutton Bridge. The census of 1911 says he was a farm labourer living at Walpole St Andrew, Wisbech.

He attested on 6 December 1915 and was mobilised on 31 May 1916, joining the 7th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers on 1 June. He was transferred to the 6th Battalion on 13 September 1916 and discharged sick on 18 May 1917 as ‘aggravated by military service’, but received no pension.

Aged 31, Page died of chlorosis and heart failure on the 2nd of September following, leaving his wife and two small children. His brother James was killed in Belgium 24 days later.

There is no known grave, though he has a headstone in the churchyard, with no burial reference in the register. He is commemorated on the Addendum Panel on the Brookwood Memorial in Surrey.

Florance Edwards Elwood

Florance Elwood was born in Langham in 1885 to William and Hannah Ellwood. The 1911 census lists him as a bachelor, a farm labourer resident in Langham; Florance is a frequently used name in the Rippingall family (later Allen) who employed Elwoods. He enlisted at Letheringsett in the Norfolk Regiment, but was transferred to 2nd Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment.

The 2nd Battalion was raised in December 1916 and also served in India from February 1917 until disbanded in January 1920. Florance is reported as ‘died at sea, 5 May 1917’ aged 32 and was probably buried at sea, as there is no known grave. He is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial at Southampton.

Some 1,540 officers and men lost their lives serving in the 2nd Battalion, and approximately 6,500 were wounded in combat.

Herbert Walter Elwood

Florance Elwood’s older brother was born in Langham on 15 April 1878. The 1911 census records him as a machine minder and living at West End, Briston. His wife’s name was Clara.

He joined the Royal Navy, serving as a Stoker 1st Class on H M Tug Desire, and was killed or died as a direct result of enemy action on 24 January 1918, aged 39.

There is no known grave; he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Cornelius Evelyn Jarvis

Cornelius Jarvis was born in Langham in 1894 to Herbert Jarvis and Martha Elizabeth Jarvis. In the 1911 census he is listed as a farm labourer resident in Binham Road. He enlisted as a private in the 1st Battalion, Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment) and was killed in action on 4 June 1915, aged 21.

Cornelius is buried in Desplanque Farm Cemetery, La Chapelle-D’Armentières, Nord, France.

Willie Reginald Jarvis

Cornelius’s younger brother Willie was born in Langham in 1898. In the 1911 census he also is shown as a farm labourer living in Binham Road.

He joined ‘A’ Company, 1st/4th Battalion, Norfolk Regiment and died on 19 June 1918, aged 22.

There is no known grave. Willie is commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial in Israel/Palestine.

Frederick Lewis

Frederick Lewis was born in 1884, the son of James and Elizabeth Lewis. He served as a regular soldier in the 4th Battalion, Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex regiment); according to his medal card he entered France on 12 September 1914. He was killed in action on 16 April 1915, aged 31.

He is buried in Godezonne Farm Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.

Frederick ‘Fred’ Wilfred Hugh Massingham

Fred Massingham was born in Langham in 1898 to William and Eva Massingham, and lived here at least until the census of 1911, working as a farm labourer. He joined, at Norwich, the 1/4th Battalion (Territorial), Northumberland Fusiliers and died of his wounds on 23 January, 1917, aged 19.

Fred is buried in Dernancourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, France.

George Henry Turner Musk

George Musk was born in Langham in 1888 to Martha Annie Musk and James William Musk, a wheelwright and carpenter of 2 Bell Yard, The Street.

By 1911 George had probably joined the Army as a regular. He served as a private in the 1st Battalion, Norfolk Regiment, and was killed in action on 4 September 1916, aged 28.

He is buried at Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France.

According to the National Inventory of War Memorials, ‘This memorial was erected by the chief farmer who lived in Langham Hall. He was no friend of the vicar and thought the village war memorial should not be in the church. He erected this memorial at his own expense on a piece of his own land.’

The farmer in question was Frederick Budd Ryder, who took up residence at Langham Hall in 1916 and ran its farm until 1969. The vicar was the Reverend John Henry Toy, who was apparently well liked in the village; there is a memorial plaque in the church which lists the same fifteen names.

The Great War, as it was called before 1939, was supposed to be the war to end all wars, but the terms of the Treaty of Versailles ensured that it would not be.

According to the Official History of the Great War, there were 2,977,801 British Army casualties, including 704,803 deaths. The average age of Langham’s dead was 26.

That war began to unravel Britain’s position as a world power and made inevitable the dissolution of its empire. It saw wholesale mechanisation applied to killing other human beings, finally putting paid to any notions of chivalry, although of course thousands of horses and mules also died in the slaughter.

Its immediate legacy was grief, widespread grief: of mothers, widows, and of legions of young women who would never marry or have children. Mixed with that grief was deep and abiding anger, of which we are given a hint by Mr Ryder’s decision to put up his own memorial.

The First World War is perhaps more affecting than all the other conflicts we remember officially each November, either because it marked the end of an era or the beginning of a new and even more horrific one.

The position of Mr Ryder’s tablet at the very heart of the village ought to remind us daily of the realities of war, for it is always the common people who are sacrificed on its altar.