Hundreds of years of remembrance at church
On Sunday I attended our War Memorial for the annual Remembrance Day Service and afterwards I joined the church service at St. Leonard's.
As always it was a poignant ceremony. We live in a time when our servicemen and women are still fighting overseas and our vicar, the Reverend Hugh Atherstone, gave a moving address, reminding the congregation that Seaford people had played their part in conflicts over the last 100 years.
As I mentioned last week, the war dead listed on our war memorial date from the Boer War and also include the civilians killed during the air-raids of the Second World War.
I wondered how long Seaford people had come into the church to remember their war dead? There was more than likely a wooden Saxon Church in the centre of Seaford prior to the Norman Conquest. Did Seaford people take part in the Battle of Hastings or the aftermath when the foreign invaders forced their rule on local Saxons?
Being a Cinque Port, many local men would have been involved in the Hundred Years War and provided troops and sailors to fight the French. Surely their wives and families came to the church to mourn?
1545 saw the last French attack on our local shores when a naval attack led by the French Admiral, Claude DeAnnabant, landed at Seaford, but were bravely fought off by Sir Nicholas Pelham and a motley group of local people armed with stones and farm implements.
Again I can imagine that this lead to more Seaford families coming to the church to mourn for their loved ones.
At the rear of the church is a memorial to a victim of the Crimean War. Nathaniel Harison of Sutton Place Seaford was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Artillery and his father, grand-father and great-grandfathers were all Jurats (Magistrates) of Seaford. He died at Scutari Hospital in Turkey in 1855 where he would have probably been nursed by Florence Nightingale, who was based there at this time.
Harison was buried at Scutari Cemetery where his gravestone had the inscription: To the Memory of Nathaniel Evanson Harison, Lieut. - Col. Commanding R.A., 4th Division of the British Army before Sebastopol.
Died 12th August, 1855. Aged 42 years. Deeply regretted by all who knew his manly and Christian character, and by the Service to which he belonged. ' Fight the good fight.'
I have mentioned the fallen of the Boer war and you will be aware that there are several memorials in the church that date from the Great War including the memorial brass to Major Cuthbert Bromley V.C. He never returned to Seaford as his ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean just a few months after the brave action which earned him the Victoria Cross.
The north-east chapel at St Leonard's is Seaford's military chapel and contains the Book of Remembrance and the Great War memorial of white Sicilian marble framed in beige coloured stone quarried from Ham Hill in Somerset. There is no lettering but it is decorated with a simple gilded cross and a palm leaf. Erected in 1922 the memorial was designed by Norman Hirst (1862-1956) and cost 183.
Is there a more beautiful memorial than the nearby stained glass tribute to 18 year old Private Maurice Galloway? The memorial is called 'Sacrifice' and was designed by the London company 'Heaton, Butler and Bayne'. They had studios in Covent Garden and produced gothic revival style stained glass for many churches including Westminster Abbey.
Private Galloway of the London Regiment was killed in Givency in northern France in 1915 and the memorial was erected by his father in 1924. The window shows a kahki-clad soldier, probably Maurice himself, sleeping under a crucifix while in the background the town of Givency burns.
The church has therefore seen lots of sorrow but let me end on a brighter note:.A couple of weeks ago I attended St Leonard's to witness the christening of Anna Olivia, a beautiful and well behaved little girl.
It was great to see the church full of happy smiling faces as the Reverend Hugh Atherstone, performed this ancient ceremony just as vicars have done many times before. So, as well as sorrow, our church has witnessed hundreds of years of joy too.
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 09 February 2012
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