A ROLL call of names of the 224 men from Frome who served and died in the war has been created alongside a garden of remembrance.
The Mayor, cllr Richard Ackroyd attended the Frome Memorial Theatre foyer on Friday 30th November, to honour the final reading of names of the 224 men from Frome who are on the War Memorial at the Frome Memorial Theatre. Most died during the Great War but some, the 12 names read on 30th November, died after the war, of injuries or illness.
The project was inspired as a Royal Naval Association idea, and became a Frome Ex-Armed Forces Association commemorative event.
Thanks are in large part to Dr Jim Clipson, who single-handedly researched the names on the town war memorial. A garden was created of specially-made fatigued wooden boxes with grass, into which crosses were placed, each with the name of one of the 224 men.
From 1st until the 30th November, each weekday at the 11th hour, ten names have been read out by members of the armed forces associations or Memorial Theatre members. All but two days have been outdoors, near the statue of Frome’s known soldier, Charlie Robbins. The short event has concluded with a minute’s silence and the reading of the Kohima Epitaph.
The community of Frome have visited, and have been encouraged to add names to crosses as their own memorial.
The names and location of the graves of the 224 men are recorded in Jim Clipson’s three albums, and include amongst many locations Frome, the Western Front, Mesopotamia and at sea; and too often “No known grave with name on a memorial”.
Although the project is now complete, the research is immortalized not only in Jim’s albums, which would be available on request, but also in the “Frome Great War Commemoration 2018 Remembrance Walk”. This is a walk, launched in July to open the Frome Festival that takes in 35 of the 224 who have been buried in Frome and who have Commonwealth War Grave Commission headstones. These are located in St John’s Churchyard, Holy Trinity, the Dissenters Cemetery and Christ Church.
To mark the final day of this poignant remembrance which for Jim, started when he got on his bike and cycled to France and Belgium in his quest, he played the Great War song “Roses of Picardy”. This song was an evocative dedication for those left behind, who opened the telegrams, who kept the home fires burning, and it was to them and those who died after the war that Jim dedicated this final day of Readings. “Lest We Forget”.
Please contact Jim Clipson on 07792 824956 or Jane Norris 0777 620 8531 for more information.