Bleue Maison Commonwealth War Grave Commission cemetery is situated within the community of Eperlecque,  Pas de Calais.  The cemetery, made in spring 1918 to be a final resting place for the dead from a group of Casualty Clearing Stations in and around Watten. Situated a short distance from the main St. Omer/Dunkerque road is where 60 casualties of WW1 and one unidentified casualty of WW2 now lie surrounded by fields of corn.

Bleue Maison is a small place compared to other cemeteries in France and Belgium, but sometimes these are more personal. While the vast numbers of white stones in the larger cemeteries show how horrific war could be, this small cemetery, close to a small road and surrounded by fields can, like other small places can be left out, while the bigger, more well known get all the glory.  But not this time!

Let’s take a little walk around and see who is there!

Bleue Maison CWGC – T G Mourant

Thomas George Mourant – Thomas was the son of Thomas Mourant and his wife Eliza.  In the census of 1911 the couple had been married 15 years and Eliza had given birth to three children, two of which had survived to be named in the census – Thomas aged 14 and his younger sister, Violet who was only three. Thomas snr, a house carpenter, was born in St. Clements, Jersey, while his wife was born on mainland UK in London.  Thomas jnr, was born in Grourville(?), while his sister was born in St Martins.  In this census the family of four were living at Percy House, Gorey, Jersey.

During the Great War, Thomas served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, as Private 29515. He enlisted in Grouville, the place of his birth and had previously served as no. 172 in the Royal Jersey Garrison Bn.  Thomas, like all other Jersey men, volunteered to go to war, as Jersey and the other Channel Islands did not call-up their young men.

Thomas George Mourant died of wounds on the 30th of June 1918.  He had been one f over 6,200 Jersey men who served in HM Forces and one of 862 who were either killed in action or died of wounds. His entry in the Army Register of Soldiers’ Effects, tells that monies due to him were paid to his father and  had all been finalised by the end of 1919.

Bleue Maison CWGC – A Duncalf

Arthur Duncalf – Arthur, born in 1898, was the son of Arthur and Charlotte Duncalf, who in 1911 lived at 3 White Street, Widnes.  Arthur snr, worked  a local soap works.

Arthur enlisted in Lower Bebington, joining the Royal Engineers and becoming Sapper WR/334538 and served in the Inland Water Transport battalion.  Arthur died on the 21st of August 1918 aged 21.  The extract below gives us a little more information about Arthur – especially the fact that he drowned whilst on active service only a few months after joining the RE’s. The information also tells that he was previously buried in the small churchyard in Watten before being moved to Bleue Maison.  It seems that he was liked by many, and that can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Arthur Duncalf extract from De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour

Bleue Maison – E E Setchfield

Edward Ernest Setchfield – His entry in Soldiers Died in the Great War, tells that Edward was born in Emneth, Norfolk, and that he enlisted in Norwich.  The Army Veterinary Corp., had Edward listed as Private SE/7275 and he died on the 19th of September 1917 age 37.

Edward had married Rose Adamson in late 1901.  By the time of the 1911 census Ernest and Rose were living in Wolsoken, with their two children at 40 Elizabeth Terrace.  Ernest worked as a coal porter to support his family.

Looking a little further into the surviving records, the Register of Soldiers’ Effects sees all Edwards effects finalised by 1919.  But one thing that is noted, is how he met his death.  Edward Ernest Setchfield is noted as being accidentally drowned in France or Belgium.  Edward rests in a sheltered, shady corner in what is quite an open cemetery.

The Mail Online has an article informing its readers of a new database containing the names of 46,000 Brits who received compensation on the abolition of slavery.

The brief article tells of a few household names whose family were in receipt of part of a portion of £20million.  These names include David and Samantha Cameron, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Afflick and Ainsley Harriott, whose great-great-great grandfather, James Gordon Harriott, was the descendant of a line of slave owners.

Going back in time, John Gladstone, father of prime minister William Gladstone, owned nine sugar plantations – British Guiana and Jamaica – of which compensation ranged from £2074 to £22443.

In one of my earlier blogs I told you about, Guy Victor Baring, who is the related to Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton, and other members of the Baring family who are on the database – and if you visit the blog about Guy, you will find he is distantly related to me.  The Baring family of bankers and investors had between them a number of plantations, with the numbers of slaves varying from 9 to over 320.  Their plantation names included:- Fuller’s Rest; Spring Garden; Cotton Tree; Belair and Philadelphia. The Lascelles family of Harewood House, also had property in Barbados and were entitled to money from the fund.

The database is can be found on the Legacies of British Slave-ownership website is a project based at the University College London.  The informative site, has information about the project and a blog – a little sparse in its content, but what is there is interesting.  The search area is well thought out and depending on your research criteria, there are three sections:- Individual’s Details (including name, occupation, religion and more); Address Details and finally, Claim Details (including claim number; Estate; Parish; Claimant Category along with compensation details and number of enslaved).

There are two estates indexed that have over 550 enslaved – John Blackburn, a Glasgow merchant whose estate was in Jamaica and James Henry Mitchell, a gentleman, of Heath House, Oxfordshire, who also had estates in Jamaica.

Recently, I found a link to a fascinating interactive map on Slate.com, who had an article The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes.  The map in 2 minutes shows 350 years of the slave trade and includes 20,528 voyages, equating to millions of lives.  The map counts up, showing the voyages year by year, ending in 1860.  Some of the years are quite shocking in the number of journeys that took place.  When playing the map, it interesting to see that North America has less voyages than the Caribbean and countries in South America (mainly Brazil).

Armistad

Another site, also with a link found on Slate.com’s site is The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database which list details of 1,000’s of voyages and includes details of ownership, captain and journeys.

Also  on the same site, is the African Names Database lists 1,000’s names, with physical details i.e. height, age, arrival year, where they embarked and disembarked including a link to African Origins.

On Wednesday 15th of July, 2015 on BBC2 at 9pm there is a documentary entitled ‘Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners’.  Historian David Olusoga will, in the first of two programmes, discover the cost of the abolition of slavery.  The short series will also who who it was that owned slaves, and not always who you would think.  There were many people including: shopkeepers, clergymen and the ordinary 18th century middle class.

Red Cross volunteers via redcross.org.uk

British Red Cross

Over 90,000 people volunteered for the British Red Cross at home and overseas during the Great War, they provided vital aid to naval and military forces and cared for the sick and wounded. County branches of the Red Cross had their own Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) made up of both men and women. The VAD’s work included such jobs as nursing, transport, rest stations, working parties and auxiliary hospitals. They ran libraries, did air raid duty, and a service that is still being used today – Missing and wounded service.

As women volunteered for jobs normally undertaken by men prior to the war it enabled over 11,000 men to be released for military service of some sort.

Agatha Christie, VAD WW1 via redcross.org.uk

Did you know that Agatha Christie, volunteered for the Red Cross before publishing her first novel in 1920 and worked in a Torquay hospital. Vera Brittain, famous for her ‘Testament of Youth’, joined the VAD in 1915 and by 1917 was working in France. Enid Bagnold, of National Velvet fame served in London. Did you also know that E M Forster, novelist, critic and essayist, was a pacifist and instead of fighting he worked with the Red Cross.

Deaths – even though the VADs were non-combatant, they suffered many deaths. During the war, 128 nursing members and over 100 other VAD members not all directly working for the Red Cross died or were killed. The Roll of Honour contains records of the deaths of 498 Joint War Committee members. This figure includes 8 VADs who died as a result of the sinking of the SS Osmanieh on 31 December 1917. The vessel was contracted by the British navy and was struck by a mine laid by the German submarine UC34 and sank, killing 199 people. They are remembered at the Alexandria (Hadra) War memorial cemetery. The most common cause of death of the VADs was pneumonia caused by Spanish flu.

An obituary in the Red Cross Journal, 1918 stated that: “Miss Elger died on February 10th from pneumonia following influenza… For two and a half years she was a devoted and conscientious worker at Clayton Court Hospital, where her loss is felt most keenly by all who knew her. Clayton Court, it will be remembered, was most generously placed at the disposal of the Red Cross by Mr and Mrs Elger early in the war. After doing so much to help their country, it seems hard that they should have to bear this further personal sacrifice”.

The VADs who died during the war are commemorated in the great Seven Sisters window in York Minster.

The Red Cross has recently transcribed personnel records and at the moment surnames starting with the letters A and B are currently available to search. Volunteers are still working to update the site with more names.

One such volunteer was Achsah Bradley of Westbourne, St Andrews Avenue, Morley. Her record card shows that she had originally lived at Denshaw, Morley. Achsah served from March 1917 to January of 1919. Her work as a Special Service Probationer, a pantry worker, was at Roundhay Auxiliary Military Hospital, Leeds, where she worked part time. In total she worked 3,920 hours, which roughly equates to nearly 40 hours per week for her 2 years’ service.

There are also a number of wonderful photographs, looking to be identified.………..have a look and see if you know who they are?

Source – http://www.redcross.org.uk/ click About us then Who are we and then World War 1