Blackmore. Remembering Frederick Garnham

Fred Garnham

Fred & Rosa Garnham

Frederick Garnham
War Memorial: Place and inscription War Memorial: Highwood War Memorial Tablet inside Roxwell Church
Rank: Private
Regiment: Essex Regiment. 2nd Battalion.  Service No. 8086
Service Details: Private Frederick Garnham Essex Regiment. 2nd Battalion Service No: 8086 Born: Chadwell Heath, Essex Enlisted: Warley Resident: Blackmore [source: SDGW courtesy WFA]
Personal and family information: Maureen Garnham-Lopez wrote, “Frederick Garnham, was born 25, September, 1887 in Chadwell Heath, Dagenham, Romford, baptised 22, July, 1894 in the Parish Church of Stondon Massey, where both his parents were living. His father was foreman at the Soaphouse Farm.  Private Fred Garnham enlisted in the Essex Regiment, 2nd Battalion.  He was in Norwich, market square where pictures of the troops were taken, he sent two of these photos (postcards) which were dated 10, August,1914, to his wife. He was deployed from Norwich to France, was killed in the Battle of the River Marne, 8, September, 1914 and is buried in Montreuil-Aux-Lions, British Cemetery, France.  His name is on the memorial inside and outside of the church in Highwood, also inside Roxwell Church, and is on the Essex Roll of Honour in the Essex Chronicle dated Friday, 8, January, 1915.  My father, Frederick Wilfred Garnham was born 4, September, 1914.” In 1914, the Electoral Roll for Mid Essex / Chelmsford Division records Frederick Garnham as a voter at 'Lightfoots' (the qualifying property), 'Radley Green via Blackmore' [ERO C/E 1/1/26]. Revd Edward Reeve, the Rectory of Stondon Massey recorded in his ‘Notes For A Parish History’, “We hear of the death of Private Fred Garnham, killed in action in France, early in September.  Now living at Radley Green near Writtle, his father for some years held the Soap house Farm in Stondon.  (His widow afterwards received on his behalf the 1914 Star and Riband issued in commemoration of the Gallantry shown by our ‘contemptible little Army’)”.  Following the War Reeve wrote of the deliberations of names to be included on the War Memorial at Stondon Massey:  “The six names are all that we could fairly include, though Ernest Maynard, a Blackmore lad who worked in the Rectory garden here up to the time of enlisting, was well known, and almost eligible; and Fred Garnham, who fell in the Mons retreat, had been brought up in the village, but had married and joined from Radley Green, Writtle.  R J Ellis was living at Norton [Mandeville] when he died, but was included as being a true Stondon lad, and with his old parents still in the parish” [ERO T/P 188/3 f860-863] Maureen Garnham-Lopez recalls her family’s visit in 2004 to meet granddad for the first time. “France was very beautiful, breathtaking countryside: quaint little villages with only a few houses, all with wooden shutters and they were all closed. It was as if there was only one road going through the middle of colourful fields, we had seen only two farmers working the fields and that was it.  From a distance I could see the cross. The memorial was just like they said, 96 kilometres South-South-West of Riems on the road from Château-Thierry to La Ferte-sous-Jouarre, just off the main road. As our car came to a stop, my heart started racing, I stepped out of the car, opened a small gate, it squeaked just like in the movies. We were looking, all looking for him, where was he? I could not believe how I felt. It felt like I was meeting him for the very first time.  This man whom I loved so much. We all said our hellos, expressed our love, shed some tears and stood there in silence, putting our hands on the headstone like we were gently touching him. Grandad, we have found you at last, I thought.”
Date of Death: 8th September 1914
Age: 26
Where died: Killed in action: France and Flanders
Place of Burial or Commemoration: Grave / Memorial Reference: IV. B. 2  Cemetery: Montreuill-Aux-Lions British Cemetery
List of Sources: Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Essex Record Office, Maureen Garnham-Lopez a descendant