A year of forced remembrance

It has, of necessity, been a year tinged with sadness.  There has been so much written, said and done in connection with the 100th anniversary of the First World War that one can't do anything but be reminded continually of the miserable fact that hundreds of thousands of men - and women - died in seemingly stupid circumstances.

For many communities, it has been hard to be forced to remember the loss of life of ancestors who often died terribly young.
For families, it has been even worse. Here in Rugeley, another military grave remembers not just one young person (who died of his wounds after the war), but a young woman as well, who also died in service (in the Second World War).  Families just have had to bear it.

A history of graves

The churchyard at Himley is a microcosm of the history of graveyards.  Though it is comparatively small, it has a long history of burials, and a number of different types. 
The small, half-sunken marker stones you see in the photo above date back to when the idea of commemorating an individual started, the 17th Century (before then, one was buried, yes, but there would have been no marker.  In a sense, it was the start of Individualism!)

Himley's more modern smaller graves were presumably for the workers who toiled away on the grand estate nearby.

Axis war graves

It's not so well-known, but there are a lot of German and Italian war-graves in Staffordshire.  This is due partly to the fact that there were prisoner-of-war camps built here in the county during the time, and partly because the military hospitals servicing the enemy forces were here too.

At Burton-upon-Trent's main cemetery in Stapenhill, you will find a number of such Axis war graves. On Armistice Day (November 11th), they are no doubt respected as much as those of the Allied forces.