Commonwealth War Graves

At St Lawrence Church, Stratford sub Castle, we are privileged to look after forty-seven World War One Commonwealth War Graves on behalf of the 

War Graves Commission.

These graves are situated on the north side of the Church (see plan below)..

Most of the people buried in these graves died at the Salisbury Isolation Hospital which was situated on the Portway, close to what is now Old Sarum Airfield. At that time it was part of  the Parish of Stratford sub Castle.

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You can view the names and details of the 47 serviceman and one nurse who were  buried in these WW1 graves on this webpage. 

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There are also two World War 2 graves in the churchyard -

those of R.E. Ginder RAF and D.D. Rawlins RAF 

War Graves Commission WW2 details here

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In addition to the War Graves, the Church also records the deaths of nine soldiers who had connections with Stratford-sub-Castle and who were killed on active service overseas during World War One. All but two of these soldiers died in France or Belgium, with one dying in Greece and the other in Mesopotamia. The names of all these soldiers are recorded on the Wayside Cross, inside the Church on the South Wall adjacent to the Organ Gallery stairs and in the Wayside Cross booklet available in the Church, more details on this webpage The Stratford Nine.

The message below was sent to the village website by a WW researcher in Australia in October 2020. The Australian website mentioned has published  photographs of the soldiers, very much of interest to our own researchers here in Stratford sub Castle. 

"I am emailing from Australia & I research Australian WW1 War Graves in the UK.

I have just completed research on the 26 Australian WW1 Soldiers buried in St Lawrence’s Churchyard at Stratford-sub-Castle & thought you may be interested in including a link to where my research can be viewed.

My research can be found following the link below to the page for Stratford-sub-Castle. The website was setup & is owned by Beth Page (also an Australian) who sourced most of the headstones photos on the website. My research compliments her headstone photos.

The headstone photos & photos of the Churchyard were kindly taken for me by request by The Venerable Alan Jeans, Archdeacon of Sarum in 2020

Of the 26 Australian WW1 Soldiers buried in the Churchyard at Stratford-sub-Castle - 23 died at Isolation Hospital, Salisbury. 15 of those had died from Cerebro Spinal Meningitis & 3 from Cerebro Spinal Fever."

https://ww1austburialsuk.weebly.com/stratford-sub-castle.html

kind regards

Cathy Sedgwick

Australia