Friday, May 23, 2014

Woodhouse Eaves remembers its youthful dead


Designed by the Leicester architect Howard Henry Thomson, the Woodhouse Eaves war memorial stands on a rock near the church. It is odd to see a First World War monument in an English village that is so obviously influenced by German romanticism.

The church porch was given in memory of an 18-year-old called Lewis Eric Tuckett, who died in 1913 - "in particularly tragic circumstances," according to the church guide book.

It seems he committed suicide during his second year at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, while suffering from acute pneumonia and pleurisy The report in the London Standard suggests he was in condition of delirium before his death.

A couple of years later and many youths from the village had died. They are remembered by Thomson's cross.


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