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Paying respects to three soldiers killed in first world war action




Mrs Carol Bryan looks at names on the Memorial To The Fallen at Newark Cemetery. 050418DD5-4
Mrs Carol Bryan looks at names on the Memorial To The Fallen at Newark Cemetery. 050418DD5-4

Poppy palm crosses have been laid on the battleground memorials of three Newark soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during the first world war.

Mrs Carol Bryan, secretary of the Royal Artillery Association’s Newark branch, visited the battlefields of Arras and Péronne in France to pay her respects to the fallen.

Two of the graves she visited were of cousins Harold and Ernest William Jarman, who grew up together.

They enlisted, served, fought and died side-by-side as privates in the 1st Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment.

They were killed, aged 20, on September 5, 1918, while manning a machine gun.

Ernest was the son of George and Sarah Jarman, who lived at 31 Stanley Street, close to the Ransome and Marles workshops in the town, where the cousins were both apprentice turners beforeenlisting.

Harold was the son of Richard and Mary Jarman, of Sleaford Road.

Private Ernest Jarman (left) and Private Harold Jarman
Private Ernest Jarman (left) and Private Harold Jarman

On the back of a photograph of his father, which was found in Harold’s breast pocket, he wrote: “Good-bye Mother, if this reaches you, I thought of home to the last. Ever your loving son, Harold.”

It was sent to Mary after his death.

The cousins are in neighbouring plots at the Péronne Communal Cemetery Extension, where Mrs Bryan laid poppy crosses.

Two other Cambridgeshire Regiment soldiers from Newark — Private Albert Page and Private Arthur Matthews — died in the same battle.

Mrs Bryan also laid a poppy palm cross at the Arras Memorial grave of Private Edward Spencer, of the 2/6th Sherwood Foresters, on the 100th anniversary of his death on March 21 1918.

A poppy palm cross was laid at the grave of Private Edward Spencer
A poppy palm cross was laid at the grave of Private Edward Spencer

Private Spencer was killed during what is known as the Kaiserschlacht or the German Spring Offensive of 1918, when the Kaiser’s forces launched a series of attacks along the Western Front in a bid to defeat the Allies before US soldiers could be fully deployed.

Private Edward Spencer
Private Edward Spencer

It was the deepest advance into enemy territory by either side since the war started in 1914.

A war diary of the 2/6th Sherwood Foresters battalion, recording the attack, said: “Very heavy enemy barrage on front line from 5am to 9.30am. Enemy attacked at 9.30am. Battalion suffered very heavy casualties.”

Mrs Bryan said: “It is so important to never forget the sacrifice of that generation, which enabled us to live as we do today.

“Sacrifices are still being made all the time by people in the Armed Forces, but that generation gave so much during the war.”

Mrs Bryan has made an annual pilgrimage to the battlefields of the first world war for ten years.

She said she always does research before her trips to find local soldiers she can pay respects to.

She has previously been to the Mons, Somme, Verdun and Passchendaele battlefields as well as the Thiepval, Tyne Cot, Vimy Ridge and Ulster Tower memorials.

“I am extremely interested in local history and the Great War is one of my passions,” she said.

“I used to go to second world war battlefield memorials with my husband as that was his main interest.

“Since he died I have been going to memorials of the first world war.”

Her late husband, Mr Tony Bryan, was a Lance Bombardier in 49 Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery for 12 years and served in Germany, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland and the UK.

They originally started their trips because Mr Bryan wanted to see where his father had fought at the Normandy Landings of June 1944.



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