Some Corner of a Foreign Field

Image: © Glyn Baker Taken: 26 Aug 2005

This is a view across West Thurrock Cemetery. The three graves in the foreground are those of Sappers Tola, Scovil, O’Lary & Gardner, all of the Canadian Railway Troops. The first three died between 13th and 21 October 1918 a matter of days before the end of the war. There are other graves from the same regiment at the same time dotted around the graveyard. To be buried in Thurrock the action in which they were involved would have probably happened in the first two weeks of October, they survived long enough to be evacuated, could it be that influenza finished what the war had started? Sorry for the bleached out inscriptions (another go sometime with evening light called for). 2010 UPDATE the War and Medical records of Sapper FWB (Francis William Becham) Andrews (who is also buried in West Thurrock) show he was originally from Herefordshire but emigrated to Canada in about 1912. He joined the Canadian Railway Troops in July, 1918 and arrived in England in September, 1918. His medical records indicated he started having very high fevers (most likely Spanish flu) in early October and he died on October 25, 1918. He mostly likely was not the only one since this flu was so contagious. Thanks to Gordon Thompson of Canada for the extra info.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0