Lest We Forget

Longcot and the surrounding area has close links to the war and at a moving Remembrance Service in 2014 at St Mary’s Church, The Rev. Frank Parkinson took the service. In his sermon, he shared this valuable information with the congregation.

Learning More of Lost Men Remembered on Longcot’s War Memorial

We hear so many names every Remembrance Sunday but what do we know about our village’s lost men and their grieving families? Thanks to the work of Shirley Dalton-Morris and colleagues, we can learn sympathetically about those men from Longcot, lost in the First World War; now knowing locations of their family home, last battle and distant grave.

  • Major Bruce Mitchell-Taylor was the son of Henry and Sarah Mitchell-Taylor of Longcot and served in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry. Because of his gallantry, he was awarded the Military Cross, with a bar for his second MC, and a Distinguished Service Order. He was killed in action on Tuesday 6 November 1917, age 30, and is buried at Ridge Wood Cemetery in Belgium. Netta Mitchell-Taylor, his sister, lived in ‘Rest Cottage’ in ‘The Dash’ until her death in 1961 and is buried in Longcot cemetery.
  • Corporal William Percy Cox – Royal Engineers – was the second son of Albert Edward and Elizabeth Cox of King’s Farm, Longcot and was killed in action on Thursday 18th November 1915, age 19 years. He is buried in the Rifle Brigade Cemetery in Ploegsteert, Belgium.
    • Percy and William Percy Cox are two names on our memorial, (but appear to be the same person, for they have the same Service number?) His family left Longcot after Percy’s death.
  • Private Meddows Hughes – Royal Fusiliers – sometimes listed as ‘Meadows’, was killed in action on 22 March 1918. His name is on the Arras Memorial which has names of some 35,000 soldiers who have no known grave. He was the illegitimate son of Gertrude E Hughes, who later married Frank Miller, the son of Longcot’s blacksmith, Silvanus Miller (d.1876)
    • (His connection with Longcot was not known, until 10th April 2017 when his step grand-daughter, Susan, got in touch with the website. Meddows Hughes
  • Gunner Samuel Gordon Looker– Royal Artillery – worked in the Swindon railway workshops. His parents, Frederick George and Elizabeth Looker, lived in Kings Hill in Swindon. He was wounded in the shoulder and died of wounds on 4 April 1918, age 30.
  • Private Ambrose James Elbrow – Royal Berks Regiment – still has relatives living in the area, including Shrivenham and Longcot. He was killed in action on 16th May 1916 and is buried in Hebuterne Cemetery in France.
  • Private Lennard William Fereman – South African Infantry: Parents, William & Helena Fereman lived in S Africa but there must be a connection with the village because James Alfred Fereman was living in Longcot House in 1911 and there are 17 gravestones for members of the Fereman family in Longcot church cemetery. He was killed on 19th October 1916, age 23 years.
  • L/Cpl Herbert Greenway – Royal Berks Regiment: Parents William and Margaret Ann Greenway lived in Fernham Road. The last letter they received from their son was dated August 7th but he was reported missing and declared as killed in action on 16th August, age 20 years. He is named in the Tyne Cot cemetery Memorial of The Missing (totalling some 34,000 names) with another 12,000 buried there.
  • Private Jasper Packer – Royal Warwickshire Regiment – known as Jesse, was born in Wroughton to Jasper and Anne Packer, who later moved to Longcot. His mother, known as Annie, ran a second-hand furniture business from Roadside Farm on Longcot Green. Annie was the great aunt of Jack Luker of Longcot, who died in 1995. Jesse was killed in action on 25th April 1915 age 30. His body was never found and he is named on the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres where his name appears with 54,388 others whose bodies were never recovered.
  • Private James Pound – Wiltshire Regiment – was the son of Charles & Christina Janet Pound, originally from Peasemore in Berkshire. He is the great-uncle of Rosemary Stallard who lives in Longcot. He was killed in action on 12th March 1915, age 26 years. His body was never recovered and his name appears on the Menin Gate memorial in Ypres with that of Jasper Packer.
  • Private Walter E Monk – Yorkshire Regiment: It is believed that he is, in fact, Walter George Monk. The 1901 census shows that Emily Monk lived with her four children in the Faringdon Union Workhouse – two of the children named were Walter George, age 6 and Frederick, age 8. He was killed in action in Gallipoli on 21st November 1915, age 21. There is no record of any Longcot connection; perhaps he worked here on a farm?
  • Able Seaman Fred Alfred Monk – Mercantile Marine – was born in Faringdon and served in The Merchant Navy – although it is said that he was also a soldier. Fred was on the SS Lowmount journeying from Bilbao to Stockton on Tees with a cargo of iron ore when, on 7th May 1915, she hit a mine laid in the Solent by a German submarine. Five crew members were killed, including Fred Alfred Monk, age 24 years. These two brothers, Fred and Walter Monk, were lost from the same family.

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

If you can add more knowledge to the file about these men, please let us know.