Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday history in Essex

THIS month brings Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday and as usual crowds will gather around Essex’s many war memorials to remember the thousands of soldiers who paid the ultimate price to serve our country.

Memorials to the fallen began springing up in towns and villages all over the UK in the early 1920s, shortly after the First World War had come to an end. Of course, at that time war-weary residents could have had no idea they would have to suffer yet again a little over two decades later when the Second World War broke out.

When Southend’s cenotaph opened in November of 1921, the town had never seen crowds like it.

The opening of Southend War Memorial in 1921. Image: Newsquest The opening ceremony saw 21,000 people turn out to watch the Bishop of Chelmsford dedicate the 40ft high monument. However, Southend came close to never getting the memorial we know today. In the years after the First World War in Southend, some council leaders thought a new hospital would serve as a better memorial to the fallen than a lone monument,

In January 1919, a meeting was held to discuss a war memorial in the town. One committee put forward the idea that the memorial should take the shape of a hospital. It would mean £50,000 would need to be raised to build the hospital and fit it out, but this was a popular option for several reasons.

Owing to a lack of space at the existing Victoria Hospital, a number of patients were regularly being sent to London for treatment. Others were going without treatment altogether. It was also thought a hospital building would be of more benefit to the Southend community as a whole.

But the idea was hard to swallow for a former Army officer named Mr Farmer, who had served on the Front in the Great War. Mr Farmer, a member of the Southend and Soldier’s Federation, said he was “disgusted” that the war was being used to raise money for what was a necessity in the town. He rebuked the suggestion, saying: 'The hospital is a necessity, not a memorial and servicemen have had enough of hospitals!' Mr Farmer’s speech was met with a round of applause by others who shared the same opinion.

Other suggestions touted included building almshouses and an exclusive social club for former soldiers as the town’s tribute to the fallen, but in the end plans for a monument won the day.

A window display of the Southend memorial made out of flowers. It was on display in the town to mark the opening of the war memorial. Image: Newsquest Carved from the same stone used to build Buckingham Palace and St Paul’s Cathedral, the Southend war memorial was designed by famous architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who also designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London where the Royal family pay their respects every Remembrance Day.

A number of other war memorials were unveiled in the years following the end of the Great War. In May 1920, a striking war memorial was unveiled in Benfleet thanks to residents raising the money needed themselves. The monument was designed by the noted church architect Sir Charles Nicholson who lived for many years at the historic Porters civic house in Southend. Billericay unveiled its war memorial in 1921 as did Shoebury, Wickford’s was in 1922, Pitsea’s in 1928 Laindon’s in 1935 while Canvey revealed its war memorial hall in 1952. Colchester was one of the earliest towns to erect a war memorial in 1920.

As Armistice Day approaches, it’s often easy to forget the individual stories of the war dead. What these men, though often little more than boys, went through and the horrors they faced individually can often get swept up in the nation’s collective remembrance. Letters penned by soldiers on the front line can give us a true insight into their state of mind.

'I think God has spared me' - Lance Corporal Ernest Fell wrote home to his parents shortly before he died Some war letters make for truly emotional reading, especially when we know the letter sent home was the last one they ever wrote. This was the case with Lance Corporal Ernest Fell, of the 1st Essex Regiment, who was killed in action in the Dardanelles in Turkey in June of 1915. Just a few weeks before his death, the 22-year-old, who was born in Billericay, had written a letter home to his parents, Ernest and Ellen Fell who lived in Ingatestone. In the letter Ernest tries to put his mother’s mind at rest over his safety. He also speaks of losing his regiment’s colonel, who he clearly had deep respect for.

He writes: 'Dear Mother and Father, and all at home, I am still alive, but really, mother, I think God has spared me on account of your prayers, or mine, for I always say mine when going into action.

'We advance during the night, for the Turks are only a few hundred yards in front of us. Yesterday we were relieved from the trenches for few days’ rest, after fourteen days hard fighting and digging.

'I often think to myself that I’m too wicked to die, I think the old saying true "that the best die first".

'Yesterday lost two chums. We had to advance at dawn, and as soon as the first seven moved from the trench five dropped, including my chum, so you can guess I was not far away. If ever there was hero, he was one for he was shot through one side and it came out of the other.

'I had to drag him through a narrow space, and he never murmured, though he was dying fast

'I have passed through too many narrow shaves to get shot now, but should it be God’s will, mother, for me to go, don’t get downhearted, for you can comfort yourselves saying "my son did his duty- and with a good heart"'.

Ernest, who was unmarried, was killed in action opposite a Turkish trench in the Helles sector on June 14, 1915. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial - a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial near Sedd el Bahr, in Turkey, on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula overlooking the Dardanelles.

He is also remembered on the Ingatestone and Fryerning War Memorial.

His brother William died two years later also serving his country. Private William Joseph Fell of the 1/5th Battalion, the Essex Regiment died of wounds in Palestine on March 27, 1917. Like so many other parents Ernest and Ellen lost both their sons in the war.