The full story of the War Memorial and all the men who are recorded on it is told in the first of the Society’s series of monographs, which can
be obtained from Fairford Town Council Office, 3 London Street, Fairford, GL7 4AH.
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Fairford’s war memorial stands within the graveyard of St Mary’s Church and was designed by Ernest William Gimson of Sapperton,
an eminent local architect. Funded by voluntary public subscription, the memorial was dedicated by the Bishop of Gloucester on 21 October 1920.
The stone cross, enclosed in a gabled lantern, stands on an octagonal base of two tiers. On its upper tier the names of 34 men who died during
the First World War are recorded together with a further 11 who died in the Second World War. The memorial stands just a few yards away from
the old Farmor’s School building which most of those listed would have attended.
The men of Fairford who went to war in 1914 and 1939 served in a wide variety of units and theatres of war.
- For example Private Philip Groves of the Royal Marines died when the battleship HMS Queen Mary blew up during the Battle of Jutland
- Private Cyril Shurmer of the South Lancashire Regiment died during the storming of the Messines Ridge in 1917
- In the same year Private Edwin Witchell of the Gloucestershire Regiment died of wounds on the banks of the River Tigris in Mesopotamia,
present day Iraq
- Royal Air Force air gunner Flight Sergeant Donald Hoddinott was killed when his Halilfax bomber was shot down while dropping supplies
to the French Resistance in 1944
- And Lieutenant Colonel Robert Thompson, a battalion commander in the East Surrey Regiment, was killed near Rome when his jeep ran
over a land mine during the campaign in Italy in 1944
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