Today I was among those who came to the Walled Garden at Lydiard Park to remember the men and women who had given their lives in the service of their country.
Revd Teresa Townsend read out the names of the local men from the small parish of Lydiard Tregoze who had gone to war and never came home.
The Great War 1914-1918 – the war to end all wars, they said.
Sergeant Ernest Arthur Townsend
Pte Reginald Skull D.C.M.
Pte Henry Frank Porter
Pte Percival Edge Smart
Pte Edward David Embling
Pte Charles Barnes
Pte Victor Reuben Newman
Pte Frank Curtis Webb
Pte Wilfred John Parrott
Pte Thomas Jesse Laurence
Pte John Thomas Titcombe
We remembered J. Embling and R. Fisher who lost their lives in the Second World War and Flt Sgt Mark Gibson who died when the Hercules XV179 was shot down in Iraq in 2005 and is buried in Hook Street Cemetery.
The day was sunny and the weather unseasonably warm. Birds flew overhead and all was quiet as we stood in silence.
Radnor Street Cemetery 
Mark Gibson was a personal friend of mine and to my knowledge there were far more Swindon men who were killed in WWI and never returned – names of Clappen & Bown amongst them.
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Hi Andrew – I’m so sorry to hear of the loss of your friend. You are indeed correct there were many more Swindon men killed during WWI. We will be commemorating these at a service at Radnor Street Cemetery on Sunday at 2 pm. The men remembered at today’s service at Lydiard Park came from the small parish of Lydiard Tregoze to the west of Swindon.
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