In this episode, Col Andy Taylor and Rev Paul Roberts take a springtime visit to Peterchurch in the Golden Valley on Herefordshire's western border with Wales. Standing in the corner of the churchyard, they spot the grave of a Victoria Cross winner and explore the story of Robert Jones VC of the 24th Regiment of Foot (which later became the South Wales Borderers). They uncover the story of how Pte Jones won this highest of all gallantry awards at the Battle of Rorkes Drift in 1879, his depiction in the 1964 film Zulu, and his later life in Peterchurch after leaving the army, including his tragic death.
A warning that this episode does feature the topic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide.
A little later, in the nearby Boughton Arms, Andy and Paul discuss the importance of war memorials in town and village life - from the time of Robert Jones when the ordinary soldier was unlikely to be memorialised, through the Second Boer War and the First World War when such memorials became an essential focus for individual and communal grief.
The poem "Drummer Hodge" by Thomas Hardy gets a mention, along with the temporary cenotaph set up in High Town, its eventual permanent replacement in St Peter's Square, Hereford, along with a number of other local war memorials which were installed in the county between 1919 and 1926. Kings Pyon, Walford, Staunton-on-Wye and Tupsley all get a mention, and the commissioning of the hymn "O Valiant Hearts", first sung at the unveiling of Bodenham War Memorial is explored... with perhaps a promise of a later episde.
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Theme Tune - The Lincolnshire Poacher, performed by the outstanding Haverhill Silver Band.
This podcast generously supported by the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.
