a novel in itself
the former Royal Oak public house, Back Hill, Ely, Cambridgeshire
My father's side of the family are from this, the Waterside area of Ely.
My great-great-grandfather Thomas Cross, a gasworks labourer, was a lodger in this pub at the time of the 1881 census. His future wife Sarah Carter was living opposite in Broad Street.
As children, Thomas and Sarah had lived next door to each other on Waterside, at the other end of Broad Street. Their first child, my great-grandmother Sophia, was born in Broad Street less than nine months after the 1881 census.
Sophia married Arthur Page, who would be killed in the Battle of the Somme. Their daughter, my grandmother Phyllis Page, was born in 1913 in Back Hill, in the houses at the right of this photograph.
In the 1930s, this pub was the home of the Ely Cage and Aviary Club. Phyllis's husband, my grandfather Joe Knott, bred racing pigeons, canaries and red cardinals in the backyard of their house at Willow Walk off of Waterside, and was a regular here.
The pub closed in 1958.
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Uploaded on Nov 11, 2009
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memory: up the line to death
poppy field, Playford, Suffolk
Arthur Page of Ely, Cambridgeshire, a Serjeant in the 2nd Suffolks. He was my Great Grandfather. He was killed shortly before first light on the 20th July 1916 in an attack on Delville Wood on the Somme. He was 37 years old. He lies at Delville Wood Cemetery at Longueval on the Somme.
Harry Anable of Dry Drayton, Cambridgeshire, a Private in the 11th Suffolks. He was my Great Great Uncle. He was killed just after 7.30 am on the 1st July 1916 at Sausage Valley just south of La Boiselle on the Somme. He was 19 years old. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial on the Somme.
Herbert Page of Ely, Cambridgeshire, a Private in the 2nd Suffolks. He was my Great Great Uncle. He was a drummer in the Battalion band. He was killed on the 2nd March 1916 at St Eloi near Ypres. He was 30 years old. He is remembered on the Menin Gate in Ypres.
Herbert Cross of Ely, Cambridgeshire, a Private in the 1st/5th Suffolks. He was my Great Great Uncle. He was killed at Gaza in Palestine on the 18th June 1917. He was 27 years old. He lies in the British Cemetery at Ramallah in the Palestinian State.
Still loved. Never forgotten. A memory handed on, a keepsake, a promise unbroken.
Move him into the sun:
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds,
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?
Wilfrid Owen
If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. `Poor young chap,'
I'd say. `I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap.'
And when the war is done, and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die in bed.
Seigfried Sassoon
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Uploaded on Nov 11, 2009
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green angel
City of Ely Cemetery, Ely, Cambridgeshire
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Uploaded on Nov 10, 2009
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angel's-eye-view
Cathedral, Ely, Cambridgeshire
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Uploaded on Nov 10, 2009
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Ely
Cathedral, Ely, Cambridgeshire
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Uploaded on Nov 10, 2009
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