Edith Gay Little and the wooden memorial

The re-imagined story …

He knew exactly what type of memorial he wanted for Edith, and he would make it himself.

He sketched it out on the table in the front room at 59 Station Road. A large cross, something that would stand proud and obvious.

In Memory of Edith Gay, the beloved wife of Edward Little. He practised the style of lettering he would use. He wanted something elegant. No, that was too ornate. He rejected his first attempt. The next was too difficult to read. Eventually he settled on a simple script, something Edith would have liked.

Would he leave a space for his own name to be added in the future? He decided not to. He couldn’t trust anyone else to choose the right script or to execute the work to a sufficiently high standard. This memorial was a symbol of his love. He didn’t want it spoilt by some ham fisted amateur.

He sat in the silent house; the late summer afternoon sunshine streamed through the window. He’d make a start now, he decided. He had a nice piece of seasoned timber in the shed.

The facts …

I first discovered this memorial more than ten years ago and each spring when the guided walks resume, I always have difficulty finding this grave again. And every year I wonder if it has managed to survive another winter, because this extremely unusual memorial is a wooden one.

It marks the grave of Edith Gay Little, a former nurse, who died on August 23, 1928 at the Great Western Railway Medical Fund Hospital.

Edith’s husband was Edward Little and I believe it was he who made this wooden memorial. Edward was employed as a bodymaker in the carriage and wagon works at the Midland & South Western Junction Railway at Cirencester. He was promoted to chargehand and eventually foreman and by 1923 was based in Swindon.

Edward was no stranger to Swindon as it was here that he married his first wife, Elizabeth Ann Bindon, at St Paul’s Church on August 21, 1897. Elizabeth died in 1909 aged 38 and was buried ‘under Coroner’s warrant’ in South Cerney where they were living at the time.

On September 22, 1911 Edward married for the second time. By now he was 41 and his bride Edith Gay Smith was 43. The couple married at Holy Trinity Church, Trowbridge.

Unfortunately, there are no known photographs of this memorial when it was new. How distinctive it must have looked, standing out against the surrounding white gravestones. I imagine Edward would have visited the grave regularly, polishing and treating the wood to preserve it.

It would appear that Edward had no children by either of his wives. He retired from the railway works in 1935 and continued to live at 59 Station Road, the home he had shared with Edith.

Sadly, he ended his days in Roundway, the psychiatric hospital in Devizes, where he died on March 17, 1953. Probate was proved at Oxford and his effects, valued at £2,369 16s 5d, were placed in the hands of Lloyds Bank.

He was buried with Edith. With no one left to come and polish the wooden memorial it now lies at the mercy of the elements.

This week Radnor Street Cemetery volunteers Kevin and Brian managed to locate and reveal the wooden grave. They even found a memorial plaque to Edward, the man who I believe was the maker of this unique and poignant memorial.