Memorials St Peter's Church Stourton

St Peter's Church Stourton contains 3 memorial plaques

"IN MEMORY
OF CAPTAIN HENRY COLT ARTHUR HOARE
ONLY SON OF SIR HENRY HUGH ARTHUR HOARE
OF STOURHEAD WAVENDON AND OXENHAM BART
AND OF ALDA HIS WIFE"

Born at Wavenden on July 30th 1888 he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge and on August !st 1914 joined the Dorset Yeomanry. He served in the Gallipoli and Palestine Campaigns, was wounded at Mughair Ridge on November 15th and died of wounds on December 19th 1917 in Raseltin Hospital at Alexandria where he rests in the Hadra New Military Cemetery.

This tablet is erected by his Father and mother in memory of the best of sons.
'Nothing is here for tears, nothing to wail
Or knock the breast. no wealness, no contempt,
Dispraise or blame- nothing but well and fair:
And what may quiet us in a death so noble"

"To the Memory of
FRANCIS JOHN WETHERED
B.A. Oxon

Of Castle Orchard, Stourton,
Son of Lieutenant-Colonel
Francis Owen Wethered C.M.G
of Marlow and of Margaret
his wife, daughter of John
Maximilian Dyer M.A.. Born
27 April 1918, He lost his life in
the service of his country and
the British Council through
enemy action at sea on
7th December 1942, aged 24

'A righteous man though he die before
his time shall be at rest' Wisdom 4.V.7."

The incident referred to on Francis Wethered is the sinking of SS Ceramic. SS Ceramic was the next ship launched after RMS Titanic at Harland and Wolff. She entered service in 1913 on the Liverpool to Australia Route, At the outbreak of WW1 she was requisitioned as a troop transport, and on one trip carried Pte Kidner who had emigrated from Ilchester. Again she was requisitioned at the outbreak of WW2. On 26 Nov 1942 she left Liverpool in convoy ON-149 with 264 crew members, 14 DEMS gunners, 244 military and naval personnel including 30 Queen Alexandra's nurses and 133 fare paying passengers including 12 children, On the 5th December she detached from the convoy to proceed independently. On the night of 6/7 she was torpedoed by U515, under Kapitan Henke. The crew and passengers abandoned ship in reasonable good order despite the rough weather. U515 returned and fired further torpedoes that caused SS Ceramic to sink. The U-boat captain had been instructed to pick up the Captain of Ceramic but the weather had deteriorated dramatically to a Force 10 gale. the U boat managed to pick up Sapper Eric Munday from a capsized lifeboat. Munday was taken back to France at the end of the patrol and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war. All other passengers and crew perished and it took many months for the news to reach Liverpool. Henke was eventually captured by the Americans and imprisoned in the U.S. where rumours of his trial for war crimes lead him to commit suicide by climbing the fence at his prison camp and being shot.


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"A GOOD LIFE BUT A GOOD NAME
HATH BUT A FEW DAYS ENDURETH FOREVER

Capt. Henry Colt Arthur Hoare Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry
Corporal Frederick Broomfield Dorset Regt
Pte Wm. Thomas Chaldecott Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Pte Wm, H. Creene Duke of Cornwall's Lt I.
Pte Wm. J. Green Royal Marine Lt I.
Sapper Hubert Thomas Keevil Royal Engineers
Pte Thomas Joseph Keevil Royal Warwickshire Regt
Pte Robert George Maidment South Wales Borderers
Pte Jack Pine Dorset Regt
Pte Edgar Eustace Watson Royal Warwickshire Regt
1914-1919

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Source

• Text: Sharky Ward
• Photos: Anthony (Sharky) Ward