The names of 43 servicemen who bravely gave their lives in the First World War appear on a brass plaque inside St Mary’s Church, Kidlington.
However, only 40 of them are commemorated on the war memorial outside the church, raising questions why three are missing.
In a book honouring the victims, retired fire officer and keen historian John Lowe explains why the omissions may have occurred.
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Albert Edward Jones enlisted with the Royal Engineers in 1915 and was posted to France.
As an engineer, he would have spent long periods on the front line.
His experiences took a heavy toll on his mental health. He did not respond to treatment and was medically discharged in 1918 with what we now know as schizophrenia.
After the war, his condition deteriorated and he died in 1922 aged 27 in a mental hospital.
He lies in an unmarked grave in St Mary’s churchyard, Kidlington.
Author Mr Lowe says his omission from the main war memorial may be because he died several years after the conflict and because of the nature of his illness.
He writes: “It is a tribute to the liberal and progressive thinking of the then church officials that allowed his inclusion on the church plaque.”
The omission of Norman Nolan Davies’s name may be because his family moved from Kidlington, where they were licensees of the Kings Arms in The Moors, to Medley, near Oxford, during the war.
Norman, 25, served in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry before heading for France with the Machine Gun Corps.
He was wounded, convalesced at home and returned to the front, but was captured during a German offensive in 1918.
He was initially reported ‘missing’ and after months of torment, his family was told that he had died in captivity. #He is buried in a military cemetery in Germany.
The third serviceman not recognised on the memorial is John Tolley, 30, who also served with the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
With Turkey entering the war as a German ally, he was among soldiers despatched to protect British interests in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) and oil fields in the Persian Gulf.
He was one of nearly 4,000 British casualties, the result of enemy action, disease and starvation.
He is buried in a war cemetery in Iraq.
After the early deaths of his parents, he moved from Oxford to Kidlington, living with a relative, Joseph Tolley, a railway worker, in the cottage at the Sandy Lane level crossing.
John worked as a county court bailiff before joining the Army and as a regular soldier, served in India before the outbreak of war in 1914. His omission from the memorial is put down to “family circumstances”.
Mr Lowe’s book, Kidlington’s Sacrifice in the Great War, which contains details of other village servicemen who were killed or died from their wounds, is published by Kidlington & District Historical Society.
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