How does a soldier from Australia end up buried in Dudley. A special service this week re-dedicates his grave.

Express & Star

A new headstone has been put on the grave of a soldier buried in Dudley. He was from Australia but had Dudley origins. A service this week will be held to mark the new headstone being put in place. We find out more.

Transcript

00:00So we're here at St. James the Great Church, Eaves Hill Dudley and we have a

00:07war grave next to you. Just introduce yourselves guys. I'm Catherine Rowbottom, a former member

00:12of the congregation here at St James. I'm John Nicholls, I'm the local war graves volunteer

00:20and I look after 17 cemeteries, about 175 graves in the Dudley area. How long have you been doing

00:28that then John? Four years. Oh wow, that's a lot to keep your eye on isn't it. So we have a grave

00:35here for a gentleman, a Mr Skidmore. That's a very fresh looking stone, just fill us in on why that

00:42is. The stone was actually boccetino marble in the first place and it's very grainy and you can

00:50hardly read the inscription, it was deteriorating. So I ordered a new stone about eight or nine months ago

00:57and in the last few weeks it's just been installed. So he was, I mean it says Australian

01:04Imperial Force, what's going on? We're in Dudley, what's happening? Well his mom and dad was

01:11from Dudley, from just around the corner and they emigrated to Australia. He was born in Victoria,

01:18Australia and joined the Australian Army and then ended up fighting in France where he got injured,

01:27brought back to Birmingham War Hospital and sadly died there. But his family was in this area,

01:35so he was brought back to Dudley for his funeral. And there were a number of his family in attendance

01:40at the funeral weren't they? Yes, there was quite a few. Yeah and 20, 27 years old, passed away on the

01:4611th of October 1917. Do we know whereabouts in France he was killed? No. No. Well, no I'm not sure.

01:55Yeah. So he actually died, I don't know where he was fighting but he died in Birmingham War Hospital.

02:00Yeah. So there's going to be a special service then just to kind of, what's the

02:06phrase it'd be called? To commemorate the new stone? Rededicate. Rededicate, that's what I'm looking for.

02:12When's that taking place then? This Thursday morning at 10 o'clock. And who's going to be in

02:17attendance for that? There'll be quite a few of the congregation of the church, there'll be myself,

02:25might be a few more volunteers, counsellors, three counsellors, three counsellors coming to the service.

02:35And we don't know how many members of the public will turn up. We must never forget must we, you

02:40know, the sacrifice, I mean 27 years old, you know. It's very important that we do remember. Yeah. And as

02:47part of the service there will be a young child from Jessen's Church of England Primary School,

02:51which is just across the road. Yeah. Close to where his family lived. They will be coming to

02:56read the lessons, so it spans every generation and carries on into the future, which is really

03:01important. That's it, that next generation kind of telling that story and is it the only war grave

03:07in this churchyard? No, there's three. Is there? There's two more. Yeah. And it's a beautiful

03:16beautiful bit of work on the stone, Portland stone. Portland stone. Yeah. And there's a place in France

03:22that does all the carving. Yeah, it's in Arras in France. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

03:28have got their workshop there. Yeah. Where they do all the work for ironwork, woodwork and the stonework

03:35for all of Europe. Yeah. And is that like a standard procedure? So if there's ever a new stone as a

03:40rededication, just to... Well, no, there hasn't got to be, but it's nice if there is. Oh, fantastic, yeah.

03:47Well, well done guys for all your work. I mean, like you say, these stories, you know, they need

03:52to keep. The beauty about having a war grave, if that stone deteriorates in another 100 years time,

04:01we'll have another new one free of charge. Will we still be around then? What do you reckon?

04:09Well, fantastic work guys and fantastic. Thank you for looking after these stones for us.

04:14Thank you, sir. He does a very good job. He does, doesn't he? He does. And this new stone is the

04:19proof of that. It is and also putting the process on all the graves as well for Remembrance Sunday,

04:25which is really important.

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