St Andrew's Church, Colne Engaine

A war memorial at Colne Engaine, Essex; built in 2014 thanks to the generosity of local donors, has seen more names added to the village's roll-call of men who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars. 

Inside the St Andrew's church, a memorial lists the names of 18 men who fell during in the First World War, with two casualties from the Second World War added later.  

The more recent memorial provides more detail on the men, including the year in which they died, and I list the names below, in the order in which they appear on the memorial. Names in bold are those names missing from the church memorial.

First World War 1914-1918

Bertram W Dixey 1917

Percy Edgar Dixey 1917

George A Boreham 1918

Stanley Butcher 1915

Sidney Carter 1916

Charles Catterwell 1917

Stanley M Coppin 1816

Scott Fairbank 1915

George Fordham 1917

Alfred James Gardner 1918

David Basil Hart 1918

Douglas Charles Hibble 1917

George Hicks 1918

Raymond George Lane 1918

George Quartermain 1917

George Charles Reynolds 1916

Bert Ridgwell 1916

Harry George Smith 1917

Tom Smith 1915

Ernest Wakeling 1915

Percy G Wakeling 1915

Frederick Willsher 1918

Frank James Wright 1917

Second World War 1939-1945

John Louis Colclough Watson 1941

Edward Cotterill Scholefield 1941

Rupert Mortimer Legge 1944

Ronald Wilfred Symonds 1944

I am sure that a lot of thought went into the new memorial but I am at a loss to understand why Bertram and Percy Dixey appear at the top of the roll call. Bertram is buried in the churchyard and Percy, presumably related, was from the nearby village of Pebmarsh. I wonder also, why the men's ranks or regiments or regimental numbers were not included on the new roll. Maybe it came down to cost in the end. Nevertheless, it's good to see that 100 years after the outbreak of the Great War, there was still sufficient drive and determination to get this project off the ground and realise it in such a well-crafted manner.  I took a number of photographs on a late autumn afternoon and will be happy to send these on to anyone with an interest in this community. Drop me a line via the research tab.