Published: Thursday, 28th August, 2008 06:00
Retro: War graves
By David Cliffe, Reading Central Library
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ANOTHER postcard from the Reading studios of Mr H A Giles this week.
The picture was probably taken in the 1930s, and I’m keen to find out where this cemetery is.
There is a hand-written number near the top, 44, but the card has become separated from others in the sequence, and there are no markings on the rest of the card to tell us where we are looking at.
If it were possible to read any of the names on the gravestones, the website of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission would give us the answer, but as things are, we are a bit stuck.
Most of the graves, if not all of them, are graves from WWI.
Many of the stones are of a standard pattern, 2ft 8ins high, with the badge of a regiment or service carved at the top.
Each of the graves in the photograph seems to have a pelargonium planted on it, and there is a yew hedge round the plot – which must be fully grown by now. The corrugated iron hut for the gardener is somehow rather touching – the day-to-day practical world impinging on the high idealism represented by all those memorials.
The plantation of pine trees in the background, with a few birch trees round the edge, makes me think we may be south of Reading, towards the Hampshire and Surrey border.
This is only a guess, of course, but since Mr Giles travelled from Reading with his camera and tripod strapped to his bicycle, the picture was probably taken not too far from here.
Also, since these are war graves, they will still be in place, and looked after.
Please get in touch if you recognise this cemetery, so that I can catalogue the picture, and put it on the library’s website for anyone who may be interested in future.
- CONTACT Retro on 0118 963 3152 or email news@readingchronicle.co.uk
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