A rather sombre topic but still a slice of local Hale history
After my last post on Private Maud Rose Payne, written for Remembrance Day, I have been asked to explain the other World War II graves in Upper Hale cemetery. For three out of the four graves, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (C.W.G.C.) funded the headstones and Farnham memorial maker, H. C. Patrick Ltd of East Street, crafted them. All three families paid for the addition of a personal inscription under the official C.W.G.C. one.
Gunner William Albert Ayres – Royal Artillery
William was the son of William and Rose Ayres, born in Upper Hale in 1903, and one of five children. His father, known as Billy Ayres, was a well-known figure in the neighbourhood as he drove his horse and cart around selling his wares to locals and to Aldershot soldiers. Billy had married Rose Vinden from another hawker family ~ her father, George Vinden, lived in Hereford Row, and was described as a ‘fish hawker’. William Junior, age 36, was listed on the 1939 Register as living with his parents at ‘Flat 2, The White House, Alma Lane, Hale’ employed as a labourer involved in pipe laying.
William ended up in an Anti-Aircraft Company of the Royal Artillery and in 1945, towards the end of the war, had been posted to Leeds in Yorkshire. On 13 January 1945 William died by drowning in River Aire, at age 41. At the ensuing inquest, the coroner stated that it was not known how William ended up being in the river. His family had William interred in Upper Hale Cemetery: ‘The call was sudden, the shock severe, to part with one so dear. Mum, Dad and family’.
Sergeant-Major James Patrick Lennon – 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards
James Lennon was a career soldier who was born in Tipperary, Ireland. We have to assume that he was posted to the Aldershot Garrison at some stage, as he married a local woman in Aldershot in 1926 – Florence Eileen Elizabeth Fox, born in Hale in 1912. The Fox family lived in various Hale locations but seems to have settled for the longest time at at Victoria Villa, Heath End, Farnham for many years. According to James Lennon’s obituary he was recognized as an exemplary soldier – for example, he was selected for duty at the Jubilee of King George IV. He was invalided out of the army in 1940 and died in Dorking County Hospital (which had been converted into a military hospital) on 21 May 1941 at age 29. His parents came from Tipperary for the funeral.
‘At the funeral, which took place at Hale, the coffin was draped with the Union Jack and borne on a gun carriage and the Royal Armoured Corps provided the bearer party’.
The family chose not to have a C.W.G.C. headstone; instead they opted for a somewhat ornate memorial produced by H. C. Patrick Company. In 1944, James Lennon’s widow, (Florence) Eileen Lennon, remarried in Farnham and her husband was Harold Leslie Patrick, Monumental Maker, brother of H.C. Patrick! Now, did they meet during the designing of James Lennon’s headstone, or was that just a coincidence?
Driver Frederick Ernest Mileham – Royal Army Supply Corps
‘On October 11 1940, two young men were struck by a German bomb during the Blitz; they were cycling home to Hale along Farnborough Road, near the Cranmore Lane junction.‘
Frederick Ernest Mileham (known as Ernie) was a Hale man born in Trinity Cottages, Hale to Frederick Mileham and Emily Hounshman Mileham in1915. Ernie was listed as a builder’s labourer in the 1939 Register living with parents at Edgers Cottage, Gravel Road. Not long after, he was called up and posted to the Royal Army Supply Corps as a driver. He must have been billeted at home as that’s where he was heading that fateful night when he and his cousin were cycling along Farnborough Road. His cousin was Frederick Staley, who died later in the Aldershot Cambridge Hospital from his wounds.
Frederick Charles Staley – Home Guard
Fred was the son of a career soldier, Frederick John Staley, and and Winifred Ada Newman Staley, who was the daughter of a previous soldier turned fishmonger. Frederick Ernest Staley was born in 1923 and was the couple’s only son among a family of three daughters. in the 1939 Register, the family were living in Hereford Court and Fred was contributing to the family income by working as a builder’s labourer. Following the explosion of the bomb, Fred was taken to Aldershot Cambridge Hospital but succumbed to his wounds on 15 October 1940. His death is recorded in the official ‘Civilian War Deaths’ published by the government.
Percival Wright
An unofficial war grave headstone was made for Hale resident, Percival Wright, who died in 1944, aged 65. The headstone records Sergeant P. Wright, 19153, Royal West Kent Regiment, 12th January 1944, as well as the regiment’s motto, ‘Invicta’. Underneath this information, are the words ‘Hope Eternal’. The burial record gave Percival’s address as ‘Homelands, Hale’. Clearly, Percival had been a soldier and may have served during the First World War; as he was not a casualty, he is not registered with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Footnote on H. C. Patrick Company, East Street, Farnham
H. C Patrick & Co were monumental masons based in Farnham, Surrey, England. They have a long history in the area and were the local stonemasons who constructed the Farnham War Memorial in Gostrey Meadow. Apparently, the current home of the company was built in the1840’s by William Patrick, builder of Farnham. Today, the company name is H. C. Patrick & Co Funeral Directors and it still operates out of East Street, being now part of the Dignity Group. So who was H. C. Patrick? Without taking you through the whole Patrick family tree, they were builders and stone masons for generations. By 1911, Herbert Cecil Patrick was running the business in East Street, Farnham, Surrey and he registered the business as a limited company using his initials , and the name has long outlived him.
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