In grateful memory of the Men of the Parish of Rockcliffe and Cargo and of this district who lost their lives in the service of their country in the Great War and in World War Two, and of their comrades who returned, having done their duty manfully. It is not the critic that counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or whether the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena…. who strives…. who spends himself…. and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails in daring, so that his place will never be with those timid souls who know nothing of either victory or defeat. At the going down of the sun, And in the morning We will remember them. A cross of sacrifice stands in all Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries on the Western Front. The War Memorial of the Parish of Rockcliffe and Cargo. It is 2010. In far off Afghanistan young men and women of various nations are putting their lives at risk as they struggle to defeat a tenacious enemy. We receive daily reports of the violent death of some while still in their teens. Others, of whom we hear little, are horribly maimed for life. We here, in the relative safety of the countries we call The British Isles, are free to discuss from our armchair or pub stool the rights and wrongs of such a conflict. That right of free speech, whatever our opinion or conclusion, was won for us by others, others who are not unlike today’s almost daily casualties of a distant war. In virtually every corner of our still beautiful land we will find a war memorial. It could be an elaborate artefact in the centre of a town or city, or a cenotaph in a public park. It may be a simple cross or granite stone at a village crossroads, or a sandstone plaque in a churchyard or on a factory wall. It could be a brass plate in a quiet corner within that church or in the assembly hall of your school. Wherever it is it is planted securely and solidly in the fabric and history of our nation. Its structure or position is not, however, of critical importance. What is important is that the men and women to whom it is dedicated are not simply names we may or may not notice as we pass by. It will soon be 100 years since the first of the names on our local memorial made the supreme sacrifice. This document is to make the husbands, sons and fathers who went off to war all those years ago more personal, and to remind us that young men and women of our nation are still prepared to accept that sacrifice. We must also remember that many more served and, although enabled to return to their families, would bear the physical and mental scars of their ordeal for the rest of their lives. The brief descriptions within this booklet of the men of this district who perished in the two World Wars make references to various cemeteries and memorials. These cemeteries are the last resting places of those who were identified or whose bodies were recovered although unidentifiable. The many memorials perpetuate the memory of those who were never found and who still lie in unknown graves on the battlefield or in the depths of the ocean. There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of such burial places and commemorative gardens scattered around the world. In many cases allies and enemies lie side by side, as do private soldiers and senior officers. In such places all are equal. “Death closes all: but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will, To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Alfred Lord Tennyson. Ulysses “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself”. - John Stewart Mill – Sacred to the Memory of: Boy First Class Joseph Rogerson Percival. Private William Armstrong. Sergeant Thomas Beaty Private Joseph Hind Private Robert Hind Private William Graham Private James McMurray Lance Corporal John McMurray Private 41513 Edward McMurray Private 43519 Edward McMurray Private George Waller Private Robert Ferguson Gunner George Stanley Maxwell Lt Colonel Richard Rolls Gubbins DSO Flight Sergeant Thomas Dennis Ingle Seaman Isaac Tribe Private George William Hetherington Private William Boyd …… and to all who strive to make our world a better place. In Memory of Ordinary Seaman JOSEPH ROGERSON PERCIVAL J/26891, RN HMS Formidable. Royal Navy who died age 18 on January 1st 1915. Son of Abraham and Elizabeth Percival, of Ivy Cottage, Rockcliffe, Carlisle. Remembered With Honour PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Commemorated in perpetuity by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Boy First Class J/26891 Joseph Rogerson Percival, Royal Navy, died on January 1st 1915 while serving on HMS Formidable, a pre-dreadnought battleship which was torpedoed on that date by German U-boat U-24 off the Devon coast. HMS Formidable was the first battleship to be sunk in WW1. Joseph Percival’s body was not recovered and he was declared lost at sea. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 6 as Ordinary Seaman J.R. Percival. He was 18. Joseph Rogerson Percival was the eldest son of Abraham (or Arthur) and Elizabeth Percival of Ivy Cottage, Rockcliffe. Their address in 1903 when their second son was baptised was given as Rockcliffe Cross. Abraham had the occupation of bootmaker. Joseph Percival is commemorated on the grave of his parents in the churchyard. PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL After the First World War, an appropriate way had to be found of commemorating those members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave, the majority of deaths having occurred at sea where no permanent memorial could be provided. An Admiralty committee recommended that the three manning ports in Great Britain - Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth - should each have an identical memorial of unmistakable naval form, an obelisk, which would serve as a leading mark for shipping. The memorials were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, who had already carried out a considerable amount of work for the Commission, with sculpture by Henry Poole. After the Second World War it was decided that the naval memorials should be extended to provide space for commemorating the naval dead without graves of that war, but since the three sites were dissimilar, a different architectural treatment was required for each. The architect for the Second World War extension at Plymouth was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. In addition to commemorating seamen of the Royal Navy who sailed from Plymouth, the First World War panels also bears the names of sailors from Australia and South Africa; the governments of the other Commonwealth nations chose to commemorate their dead elsewhere, for the most part on memorials in their home ports. After the Second World War, Canada and New Zealand again chose commemoration at home, but the memorial at Plymouth commemorates sailors from all other parts of the Commonwealth. Plymouth Naval Memorial commemorates more than 7,000 sailors of the First World War and almost 16,000 from the Second World War. Boy 1st Class RN (Ordinary Seaman) Joseph Rogerson Percival is named on Panel 6 on the Plymouth Memorial. In Memory of Private 466 WILLIAM ARMSTRONG 13th Bn., Australian Infantry, AIF. who died age 27 on May 9th 1915. Remembered With Honour LONE PINE MEMORIAL Commemorated in perpetuity by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Pte 466 William Armstrong served with the 13th Bn Australian Imperial Infantry and died on 9th May 1915. He had emigrated just before the war began. He enrolled in the AIF on 12th September 1914 and gave Cargo, Carlisle as his place of birth, and labourer as his occupation. He was then 27 years and one month old. His next-of-kin is declared as Mrs M Armstrong, of Moss-side Cottage, Cargo Beck. He died during the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign and is commemorated on Lone Pine Memorial (Panel G36) at Gallipoli, Turkey. The 13th Bn was part of the 4th Australian Brigade, 1st Div. of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.