Tasburgh War Memorial

                                      At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

Those words spoken throughout the land on or near the 11th November every year would have meant so much more to those who gathered around Tasburgh's Memorial at the entrance to the churchyard when it was dedicated on 4th September 1920. The local press report of the occasion read as follows : -

   "At the entrance to Tasburgh Churchyard there has been erected a granite block, six feet high, in memory of the men from Tasburgh who fell in the war. The memorial is characterised by an appearance of massive dignity and quiet simplicity which makes it quite uncommon. A service of dedication was held on Wednesday afternoon and was preceded by the ringing of a muffled peal. The church was well filled while special seats were reserved for the relatives of the fallen, and for ex-service men. The proceedings commenced with the singing of the National Anthem, followed by the hymn, "O God our help in ages past", and a shortened form of "Evensong" which was taken by the rector, the Rev, R Hurd. The lessons were from the Book of Job xix, 21 and from Revalations xxi 1-7, and were read by the Rev W Hemp, Primitive Methodist minister. After the special collects had been said, there followed the hymn, " Let saints on earth in concert sing", after which the congregation , led by the choir and clergy, proceeded to the churchyard.                                                                      Lady Harvey, in well-chosen and sympathetic words, said that they had come together to honour the memory of those who had died that we might live. After unveiling the memorial she asked the Dean of Norwich to dedicate it. The Dean read some beautiful and well-chosen words from John Oxenham's "Te Deum" and the dedicatory prayers ended, the congregation returned to the church, and the hymn "Ten thousand times ten thousand", was sung, There followed a touching address by the Dean, who referred to the memorial as  one of the most striking that he had seen. He went on to speak of the heritage of responsibility which the heroes whom they commemorated had left us. "Noblesse oblige" was a motto which we might well adopt as expressing that responsibility, a motto untranslateable into words, but one which we might well translate into action as our answer to the great question, "What have you done for God and for England?"              The service concluded with the singing of the hymn "For all the saints", and after the Dean had pronounced the benediction the "Dead March" from "Saul" was played and another muffled peal was rung while the congregation was leaving the church"

At least 70 men, mostly volunteers, with links to the village served in the armed forces at some point in WW1 and 12 of those men, who they would most have known, never returned to this country. Four of them lost their lives during the four and a half months of the Somme campaign in 1916 alone. The Memorial was intended as a focal point for the grieving relatives of those who who had been buried overseas or who had no known grave. Two more men died of their wounds in the UK and are buried here in the churchyard, one of them after the Memorial had been erected. Their names were added when the Memorial was refurbished in 2018 for the 100th anniversary of the end of the war. Before then just one further name had been added as a result of WW2, but who were these men that would have known so well the church and the old village houses, the roads and the lanes that we still know and use today? Where did they live or what was their connection to Tasburgh? When and where did they die and how else are they commemorated   

They were all real people with grieving parents and other relatives, and included two brothers, and two pairs of cousins. They deserve to be remembered for what they did and what they gave, and hopefully the information which follows means that they will be appreciated and will indeed never be forgotten.