LOCAL ex-servicemen recently remembered a Frome soldier killed in the Somme, as they continue honouring those buried in the town’s Dissenters’ Cemetery.
A small service was held on Sunday 24th July to remember Lcpl Norman George Manning Case of Keyford, brother of Frome and Somerset cricketer Cecil ‘Box’ Case. Norman Case died 100 years ago at the Somme.
Two more Somme casualties – Lcpl Lewis John Harvey Vallis and Pte Stanley Clarence Cox, both Somme casualties – will also remembered over the next month.
Jim Parsons, chair of trustees at Dissenters’ said, “Once a year, in November, the general public remember. with poppies and The Remembrance Service. Two World Wars and so many dead. For what?
“For the freedom you have to go about your daily life; pleasing yourself what you will wear, eat, say, think. Freedom to choose. To choose to support anything you wish, or nothing. To oppose anything you do not believe to be right.
“At the behest of our elected governments of all persuasions, our Service personnel have gone out to fight tyranny in many forms. They have gone out also to serve our fellow men (and women and children) by helping in natural disaster situations.
“Service and serving are not considered today to be worthwhile. Selfishness and greed. What can I get from a given situation. These are today’s norms.
“However, our military services continue to serve our nation. And the personnel continue to be killed; to be maimed; to suffer mentally as well as physically.
“To many families and individuals, remembrance is a daily occurrence. Think Falklands; Afghanistan; Iraq.
“The Royal British Legion, founded in 1920 continues its work of supporting and helping Service Men and Women and their families. Continues to Remember, and to remind us each November of the sacrifices made, and the debt we owe.
“The Commonwealth War Graves Commission also continues its work of maintaining the graves of our War Dead and the monuments engraved with the names of those who have no known grave.
“In the Frome Dissenters Cemetery, amongst the nearly 6,500 internments, are 12 War Graves. A further seven family graves record a son or grandson who died in the service of their country overseas. Six of these were in the two World Wars. The seventh in the Boer War.
“For two years, since August 2014, we have specifically remembered these 19 Servicemen by placing a wreath on the grave on the anniversary of their death.
“Commencing our third year next month, our first two remembrances will be of Lewis Vallis and Stanley Cox.
“Vallis is commemorated on his grandfather’s grave (William Brett Harvey) a deacon and Sunday school superintendent of the then Zion Congregational Church. Cox is remembered on the headstone of younger siblings who died as children.”
Upcoming ceremonies are: Lewis Vallis (29th August), Stanley Cox (1st September), Walter de Garrett (4th September), Alec Burgess (13th September), Herbert Rose (31st October) Frederick White (22nd November), Arthur Smith (2nd December), Cecil Cottle (10th December).
All ceremonies are at 11am.