Picture: Reuben Holmes

Quest to detail the war dead

A historian is appealing for information on the people who died during the two World Wars buried in Spalding Cemetery.

Andrew Hill is currently collating data on the approximately 30 male and female military personnel with Commonweath Graves in the cemetery, in the hope the public will be able to fill in each person’s story and provide a photograph.

Mr Hill said: “The idea is to give each person a brief local profile with possibly a photograph. Details of where they lived, where they went to school, where they worked until enlisting, etc.”

He is appealing for any information on the people listed below, and would especially like to hear from any living relatives.

Mr Hill has a list of those buried in the cemetery, compiled by local researcher Pamela Campbell.

Those buried include 18-year-old Cecil Boothby, who was gassed in the trenches and died of exposure in 1916.

His was the first military funeral in Spalding.

Mr Hill is appealing for information on the following people:
Florence Mary Bowman (29/4/45), Harold Smerdon (8/5/44), Leslie Thomas Macswayne (20/10/43), George Charles Land (10/4/43), Arthur Cecil Bull (24/12/46), Wm Ernest Barnes (4/8/40), George Thornhill (1/9/42), Walter Groom (30/11/18), George Henry Foreman (28/10/18), W A Parker (26/11/18), Wm Edwards Dring (24/8/16), Cecil Boothby (13/2/16), Pte Frank Heaven (27/11/18), John Samuel Reynolds (10/12/19), John Robert Spriggs (7/9/41), Walter Scotney (7/8/41), Sydney Arthur Bates (14/8/41), Stuart Murray (27/5/40), Norman Craft (3/3/41), Harold Wm Barnett (7/7/45), William Blogg (14/4/44), Barbera June Cannon (9/6/42), J Jenienicki (17/12/41)

To provide information, contact Mr Hill via email on ahill10197@aol.com

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