Author Topic: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1  (Read 3185 times)

Offline Emsworthy

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Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« on: Tuesday 27 February 07 17:12 GMT (UK) »
Afternoon all,

Recently stayed in Arras in northern France after years of promising myself I'd go and visit the place where my 2xGt Uncle Ephraim Warner died in WW1.  He was born 21st March 1894 and 'died' on 14th April 1917.  The link shows the information that I had at the time.

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=776060

So, looking at 'Bay 7', stupid me decided that was where he'd be buried...spent a very long time trudging up and down looking, eventually, at all the headstones in the cemetery before deciding he wasn't there.  Now, looking again, I guess that the 'Bay 7' would refer to the bay on the memorial?  It was being spruced up, what with it being the 90th Anniversary this year and all (see? Not completely ignorant!) so we couldn't get to it to have a look anyway.

My question now is how would they have a date of death for him if he was only ever 'missing'?  Or would that be the date he went missing?  Are there any records that might give me answers?  So many questions!!  I've ordered Ephraim's possible marriage certificate to try and build a bigger picture of him - I have no photos unfortunately - and would like to know exactly what happened to him.

Any help would be great please!

Thanks in advance!

Regards, Emma ;)
~Census Transcriptions, Crown Copyright, National Archives~<br /><br />All Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk<br /><br />Warner (Essex) Edgley (Suffolk) Blake & Sparrowhawk (Lambeth) Hall & Gibson (Co. Durham) Brown (Yorkshire)

Offline liverpool annie

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 27 February 07 17:26 GMT (UK) »

Hi Emma !

This should give you some background !! Maybe you could ask on the Forum for anybody going there - to try and take a photo for you ! .... I know some have just come back !  :-\ I'm sure one of the guys will be able to give you better information !! Did we get Ephraim on the War Memorial ?

Cemetery: ARRAS MEMORIAL
Country: France
Locality: Pas de Calais

Visiting Information:

NOTE: From 29th January 2007 to 23rd February 2007 public access to panels 6,7,8,9 and 10 will be restricted. Signs are in place which state that for health and safety reasons access to these panels can only be gained under supervision of Commission staff. The staff on site will assist in this task if requested. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused during this period. The Panel (or Bay) numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels (or Bays). Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative Panel (or Bay) numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panel (or Bay). Wheelchair access to the memorial is possible, by an alternative entrance at the rear of Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery.
Location Information:
The Arras Memorial is in the Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery, which is in the Boulevard du General de Gaulle in the western part of the town of Arras. The cemetery is near the Citadel, approximately 2 kilometres due west of the railway station.
Historical Information:
The French handed over Arras to Commonwealth forces in the spring of 1916 and the system of tunnels upon which the town is built were used and developed in preparation for the major offensive planned for April 1917. The Commonwealth section of the FAUBOURG D'AMIENS CEMETERY was begun in March 1916, behind the French military cemetery established earlier. It continued to be used by field ambulances and fighting units until November 1918. The cemetery was enlarged after the Armistice when graves were brought in from the battlefields and from two smaller cemeteries in the vicinity. The cemetery contains 2,651 Commonwealth burials of the First World War. In addition, there are 30 war graves of other nationalities, most of them German. During the Second World War, Arras was occupied by United Kingdom forces headquarters until the town was evacuated on 23 May 1940. Arras then remained in German hands until retaken by Commonwealth and Free French forces on 1 September 1944. The cemetery contains seven Commonwealth burials of the Second World War. The graves in the French military cemetery were removed after the First World War to other burial grounds and the land they had occupied was used for the construction of the Arras Memorial and Arras Flying Services Memorial. The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. The ARRAS FLYING SERVICES MEMORIAL commemorates nearly 1,000 airmen of the Royal Naval Air Service, the Royal Flying Corps, and the Royal Air Force, either by attachment from other arms of the forces of the Commonwealth or by original enlistment, who were killed on the whole Western Front and who have no known grave. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick.
No. of Identified Casualties:
34741

And also here !

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10639609

Annie  :)
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Offline Emsworthy

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 27 February 07 20:46 GMT (UK) »
Hi Annie...thanks for that information!!

Typical of me to go there when they've closed the memorial for work!! Like I said before, I've ordered a possible marriage certificate which should be here by Friday, so who knows?  That could point me towards some other descendants...fingers crossed!

If not, then do you know anyone else with an Ephraim Warner in Essex?! 

I'm really interested in him...he's my favourite in my tree!!

Regards, Emma ;)
~Census Transcriptions, Crown Copyright, National Archives~<br /><br />All Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk<br /><br />Warner (Essex) Edgley (Suffolk) Blake & Sparrowhawk (Lambeth) Hall & Gibson (Co. Durham) Brown (Yorkshire)

Offline harribobs

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 27 February 07 22:39 GMT (UK) »
Emma

am army is broken down by division, brigade, battalion and beneath that companies platoons and sections. before a battle a raid or a period on the front line, the officer in charge knows how many men he has and who they are. On their return a roll call is held to establish casualties, who was killed, wounded or is lost. Quite often there are witnesses to a mans death, even in the event of his body not being recovered.

in another circumstance a mans body may have been recovered and buried, only for another battle to roll over the area and the location of the grave is then lost. There is another circumstance where a body is recovered but all identication has been lost. These men are buried with the inscription, Known unto God.

hope this helps

chris


Offline liverpool annie

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Cooper : Muels : Howarth : Every : Price : King

http://web.archive.org/web/20130407030702/http://www.freewebs.com/liverpoolannie

http://web.archive.org/web/20130407191115/http://manchestersoldiers.webs.com

http://web.archive.org/web/20130807102055/http://www.powv.webs.com/
Be who you are and say what you feel -  because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind ! Dr. Seuss

Erect no gravestone .... let the Rose every year bloom for his sake ! Rilke Sonnets to Orpheus, I

Offline Emsworthy

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #5 on: Tuesday 27 February 07 23:18 GMT (UK) »
Hi Chris and Annie,

Chris:  Thanks for that information...I will add it to the file!

Annie: Thanks again for the update - still haven't made it to the memorial!!

Regards, Emma ;)
~Census Transcriptions, Crown Copyright, National Archives~<br /><br />All Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk<br /><br />Warner (Essex) Edgley (Suffolk) Blake & Sparrowhawk (Lambeth) Hall & Gibson (Co. Durham) Brown (Yorkshire)

Offline Swindunc65

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #6 on: Monday 31 December 18 01:52 GMT (UK) »
Hi Emma, I've just been looking through my family tree and stumbled across Ephraim Warner and the memorial at Arras. He is the brother of my Great Grandmother Annie Edgley nee Warner so my Great uncle. So it's an opportunity to say Hi Cousin  :)

Offline Emsworthy

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #7 on: Monday 31 December 18 03:25 GMT (UK) »
Hi Duncan,

Good to hear from you! Since I posted this thread, I've been back to Arras again and found Ephraim's name on the memorial.

He got married to Florrie Jane Brown at the outbreak of WW1, when he was 20 and she was 32. She remarried after the war and I was in contact with a descendant of Florrie's daughter, who told me that she remembered a photo of Ephraim always being present in the house when she was growing up, but she had no idea what had happened to it. So near, yet so far!

If you can shed any further light on Ephraim, then do let me know.  :)

Emma
(Just to clarify, Gladys (Edgley) and Len Blake were my grandparents.)  :)
~Census Transcriptions, Crown Copyright, National Archives~<br /><br />All Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk<br /><br />Warner (Essex) Edgley (Suffolk) Blake & Sparrowhawk (Lambeth) Hall & Gibson (Co. Durham) Brown (Yorkshire)

Offline Swindunc65

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Re: Ephraim Warner - Arras Memorial - WW1
« Reply #8 on: Monday 31 December 18 08:55 GMT (UK) »
The penny has just dropped, you must be Barbara's daughter.