Author: admin

This is the war grave of Henry Rowles, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. There’s not much information on this gravestone, nor indeed on the Commonwealth War Graves web-site, and I had expected another story of a young life cut short. Instead, I’ve been on an unexpected journey with Henry….. (and I hope I’ve got this story right).

Henry Rowles was born in Witney on 17 February 1857, the son of Henry and Elizabeth Rowles. In 1861, he’s listed as living with his parents and siblings on the High Street in Witney, with his father working as a fuller. Things went a bit awry and at the 1871 census, Henry was listed as residing at Her Majesty’s Pleasure at Oxford County Gaol (which only finally closed in 1996). He had robbed a counting house with a friend called Henry Davis and was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour. A Henry Rowles was executed at the same prison a few years later for murder, but they don’t appear to be linked.

Anyway, by the 1881 census, Henry’s teenage waywardness had been rewarded (or punished, depending on how you look at it) when he was serving Her Majesty in the Dragoon Guards, training in Aldershot. For reasons unknown, he met Emma Jackson in Norfolk and they were married in 1883, being listed as living in Queen’s Road in 1891 along with their only child, Frederick.

By the 1901 census, Henry had moved to 9 St Mary’s Alley in Norwich with his now much larger family, although he had lost two children. Bringing this story forwards to the First World War, it appears that he enlisted in the Royal Defence Corps. This was a unit that had former soldiers in, or soldiers who were too old, who weren’t sent overseas but instead performed guard duty roles in the UK, such as guarding bridges, structures or prisoners of war. It’s likely that Henry was doing the latter, as that’s what most members of the Corps were doing.

When in service for the 155th company of the Royal Defence Corps, Henry died on 8 November 1918 with the flu, with his body being returned to Norwich for burial. Unfortunately, his military records have been lost and so there’s a chunk of the story here that can’t be told. But, I imagine Henry was an interesting character……

This is the war grave of Robin Henry Hubert le Brasseur, located at Earlham Cemetery, but not in the main Commonwealth War Graves section. Robin was born in 1884 in Hampstead, London, the son of Robert and Agnes le Brasseur.

Robert le Brasseur was clearly a wealthy man, he had founded the law company Le Brasseur and Oakley in 1881, which still exists today in the large legal business now named RLB Law. In 1891, the family were living at 63, Belsize Avenue, with three servants supporting them. They’re also listed on something new to me, which is the 1893 Westminster Roman Catholic Census. The family were living at the same location in 1901, although things must have been going well, as they now have five servants to serve their every need and whim.

The family then moved to Carey Street in London, which by chance I visited a few weeks ago in the hunt of the Victorian Star Yard toilets. I would say that the le Brasseurs might have used these toilets, but I suspect they probably didn’t, not given the huge property which they owned.

But, back from this decadence to Robin. He was educated at Wimbledon College and although I can’t find his war records on-line, he joined the RAF and soon became a Lieutenant. By 1916, he was part of the No. 16 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps, a dangerous unit to be in as flight technology was hardly developed at that point.

Despite the dangers of his job, Robin didn’t die in a plane crash, but during a period when he was off-duty following service in France. Robin was travelling from Cromer to Norwich, but the tyre burst on his car near to the Plough & Shuttle public house in Marsham (that pub is still there, it changed name to the Flags in 1985 and then to the Plough Inn in 1999) which led to his car crashing into a house. The local press reported that Dr. Morton and Dr. Little came from Aylsham to assist, with Robin being taken by “a motor ambulance” to the Norfolk War Hospital (which later became known as St. Andrew’s Hospital in Norwich, which closed in 1998). Robin died at 7am the following morning, 24 May 1916, aged 31.

I’ve never visited Earlham Cemetery before, so I decided to meander along today as part of my walk from the city centre.

This is North Lodge, built in 1855 and this entrance to the graveyard was for religious non-conformists. The building was used by the superintendents, one at each lodge, who resided and worked from the building.

South Lodge, also built in 1855, which came onto the market in 2015 when it was sold by Norwich City Council, after having not been lived in since the 1920s. This was the property used by the superintendent at the Church of England entrance to the cemetery.

These two photos are from the Jewish area of the cemetery.

This is the Catholic chapel, with this and the Jewish cemetery mortuary chapel being the only two nineteenth religious buildings on site left. The beautiful Church of England and non-conformist dual chapel arrangement in the centre of the graveyard were ripped out in the 1960s and replaced by a crematorium designed by David Percival. Percival also designed St. Augustine’s Swimming Pool (since demolished) and the former Norwich Central Library, the one I liked and which unfortunately was destroyed by fire in 1994.

One of the iron grave location markers.

The Commonwealth War Graves area, although there are also some stones of others who died during the First and Second World Wars dotted around the cemetery. I’ve discovered since visiting that there’s an old military graves area, which I didn’t notice whilst meandering around. I’ll have to go back at some point to have a look at that (and I did, more about that here).

The crematorium gardens. And below, just a few random photos from the cemetery grounds. It’s a huge site and although there were plenty of people walking around, it’s such a large cemetery that it still felt quiet and peaceful. A lot of the crosses on graves seem to have been tipped over to prevent them falling, but the general maintenance around the entire cemetery seems excellent.