John Harold Bird (1125) plot

Location

Plot number (FHS)	1125
Row	13
Section	11
Date

Commonwealth War Graves

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Private John Harold Bird

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission honour and care for memorials to the men and women of the Commonwealth who died in the First and Second World Wars, ensuring they will never be forgotten.

View all CWGC burials in Rectory Lane Cemetery (Great Berkhamsted St Peter)

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John Harold Bird (1125) plot

Plot number:
13,11
Family name:
Bird
Burial date:

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Private John Harold Bird

20/06/1907 –03/01/1945

Private in the Home Guard, 7th Hertfordshire Battalion

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20/06/1907 –03/01/1945

Private in the Home Guard, 7th Hertfordshire Battalion

Research:

Janice Boakes
Brenda Fowler (John Bird’s daughter)

John Harold Bird was born in Kings Langley on 20th June 1907 and was the third of 8 children born to George Debenham and May Bird. His father worked at the John Dickinson’s paper mill as a paper stainer and they lived at 4 Langley Hill.

John married Grace Eleanor Evans in Berkhamsted in Q3 1935. She lived at 6 Park Street, Berkhamsted; her old brother Ernest is buried in Rectory Lane in 1921 with full military honours.

John worked for the Berkhamsted Co-op, driving their horse drawn van.

The young couple lived at 14 Cross Oak Road. They had two daughters, Joan (1938-2014) and Brenda. He died at the Hertfordshire County Sanatorium Ware Park, Herts on 3rd January 1945. The sanitorium was specifically for TB patients. When he died, John was a Private in the 7th Hertfordshire Battalion of the Home Guard.

He left behind his wife who had the words “BEYOND THE SEA OF DEATH LOVE LIVES YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOR EVER” added to his Commonwealth War Graves Headstone.

Brenda wrote to say:

‘You asked about my father. It is very sad but I have no memories of him. All I can tell you is that he was in the Home Guard (This is the only photo of him in uniform). I am sorry to say he died of TB in ’45.”

Research by Janice Boakes with additional information and photos from Brenda Fowler, John’s daughter.

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Family name	Bird
Burial date	Not known
Burial capacity	Not known
Burial depth	Not known
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Burial visible (2019)?
Burial visible (1991)?

CWCG Private J. H. Bird, 7th Hertfordshire Bn. Home Guard

The epitaph reads:

Beyond the sea of death love lives yesterday, today and forever

It is taken from the poem: ‘One Day’ by Christina Rossetti

I will tell you when they met:
In the limpid days of Spring;
Elder boughs were budding yet,
Oaken boughs looked wintry still,
But primrose and veined violet
In the mossful turf were set,
While meeting birds made haste to sing
And build with right good will.
I will tell you when they parted:
When plenteous Autumn sheaves were brown,
Then they parted heavy-hearted;
The full rejoicing sun looked down
As grand as in the days before;
Only they had lost a crown;
Only to them those days of yore
Could come back nevermore.
When shall they meet? I cannot tell,
Indeed, when they shall meet again,
Except some day in Paradise:
For this they wait, one waits in pain.
Beyond the sea of death love lies
For ever, yesterday, to-day;
Angels shall ask them, ‘Is it well?’
And they shall answer, ‘Yea.’