TOPIC:

ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS CHURCH,
GUITING POWER,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE,
GL54 5TX.
ENGLAND.

ORDNANCE SURVEY GRID REFERENCE: SP0956124533.


ST. Michael and All Angels Church


Entrance gate to the church

Located within the beautiful cotswold village of Guiting Power, this church is the location of a memorial to two of it's residents who made the ultimate sacrifice in the South African campaign.


As the visitor walks through the entrance doors, the brass memorial plaque (which has gained a marvellous dark patina over the years) is located on the right hand wall to the left of the window.


The inscription thereon as follows:
"THIS MEMORIAL IS ERECTED
IN HONOUR OF THE LOWER
GUITING MEN WHO GAVE
THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR
COUNTRY IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR
SERGEANT THOMAS REGINALD
WALKER PRETORIA DECEMBER 18 1900 &
PRIVATE WILLIAM THOMAS
CARPENTER 2ND BATT DORSET
REGIMENT AT ALMOND'S NEK
JUNE 11 1900."

Further into the church turn right into the Chancel and on the left hand wall there are a pair of stained glass windows.


The window to the left commemorates John Walker, father of Thomas Reginald, and Lord of the Manor.


The window to the right commemorates Thomas.


The lowest panel bears the inscription:
"also of his son Sergeant Thomas
Reginald who in the Boer War died
at Pretoria. December 18 1900 aged 33 years"

Following further research into the two men whose sacrifice is commemorated on this brass plaque it becomes apparent that they were on the opposite sides of the social spectrum!
Thomas Reginald Walker was the son of the Lord of the Manor and William Thomas Carpenter, the son of an Agricultural Labourer. Death in war really is a great leveller.

SERGEANT THOMAS REGINALD WALKER
He was 33 years old at the time of his death, and was serving with the Imperial Yeomanry Bearer Company, and as such could have been attending to wounded men during battle. Men of the bearer companies often proved to be the bravest of men when treating and recovering the wounded.

For his service in South Africa he was posthumously awarded the Queen's South Africa medal with clasps Cape Colony, Orange Free State and Transvaal. The medal named to the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital

Died of disease at Pretoria on 18th December 1900.
Interred at Pretoria 1. Monument 69.

FURTHER COMMEMORATIONS

From "THE ECHO," dated Monday, November 3; page unknown:
"HONOUR THE BRAVE"
"In the church of St. Bartholomew,-the -Great, London, a church parade of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Vols) has been held, and in the cause of the service a brass tablet, to the memory of Privates George William Morton Stevens, Thomas Reginald Walker (son of the late Mr. John Walker, The Manor, Lower Guiting) and Ralph Poynter Williams, who fell in the South African Campaign, was unveiled in the Lady Chapel. Colonel I. E. Squire,vin asking Major-General Sir William Taylor to perform the ceremony, said that out of 90 officers and men sent to the front, three lost their lives. One of them was killed in action; the other two, in trying to combat disease in others, themselves succumbed. Sir William Taylor, Director -General of the Army Medical Service, before removing the Union Jack and Geneva flag which covered the tablet, said two members of the corps had distinguished themselves by winning the Victoria Cross, but those who were commemorated in the tablet had won immortality. He thought that the memorial could not have been more suitably placed than in the chapel, because it would show that the character of our countrymen had not changed since the church was built 700 years ago. He then handed the tablet to the care of the rector and churchwardens for ever, after which the "Last post" was sounded by the bugler."

Furthermore, Thomas's name is also inscribed on the memorial tablets at Chapter House, Gloucester Cathedral.

2506 PRIVATE WILLIAM THOMAS CARPENTER: 2ND BATTALION DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT.

KILLED IN ACTION at Alleman's Nek (Almond's Nek) on 11th June 1900.
Interred at Volksrust monument 19


The Census of 1881 shows William was born in Broadway, Worcestershire in 1870, and was living at The Village, Guiting Power AKA Lower, Winchcomb, Gloucestershire.
His father Charles (aged 45) was an Agricultural Labourer, no doubt to the Walker family. William's mother was Charlotte. At this time there were no other children of the family.

The Army Register of Deceased Soldier's Effects (81199) tells us that William attested to his regiment on the 23nd of September 1887 at nearby Evesham, Worcestershire at the tender age of 17.
His account to the sum of £8 was settled with his father Charles.

William is further memorialized on the bronze tablets at Chapter House, Gloucester Cathedral and the memorial to the fallen of the Dorsetshire Regiment at Sherbourne Abbey.

VOLKSRUST CEMETERY

Steve as you say Guiting Power was and is a beautiful village - I hope for the sake of the soul of Thomas William Carpenter, Volksrust is equally beautiful. My favourite is Upper Slaughter but I don't think the church there commemorates any of the ABW fallen.