I am Eliza Fletcher and I’m a widow. I'm here to represent the many parents who are buried in public plots within the cemetery and without the finances for a private headstone for themselves or a memorial for their lost sons. My husband James died in 1915 and before the loss of my sons. (James and I are buried in E Uncon Public 613). He was a chair manufacturer and we lived at 33 Westbourne Street before I moved to Desborough Road. We had a large family to care for – eight children in total but I was to lose three of them, two in the Great War. There was Annie, James, Clara, Florence, Eliza, Joseph, Walter and Kathleen.
It was to be Joseph, who I was to lose first, killed in July 1916 when he was 32, with the tragedy of losing my youngest son, Walter, yet to befall us. When Joseph died we got a letter from his captain to tell us that he was missing after fighting took place on the 21st July but my hopes that he might be found, safe and sound, were sadly to be dashed.
In fact when they wrote in the paper that Joseph had been killed they used the photograph of James his older brother instead, and I just hoped that it wasn't an ill omen. I suppose, in a way, that it was, but it was actually to be my youngest son, Walter, who was the next one to fall and James fortunately was to survive. Walter was killed in Aug 1917 when he was 29.
They were all in the chair trade and both Joseph and Walter were upholsterers. At least Joseph got to have a family, and he married Clara in 1905. They lived along the Oxford Road with their young children. Although Walter had taken a shine to a Pepin lass he sadly died before any wedding could take place. He had been 15 months in France and was in a salvage section when he was mortally wounded.
We aren’t the only ones to suffer of course and my daughter, also called Clara, married Fred Adby and Fred was to lose his two cousins Richard Adby in 1916 in Mesopotamia and Sydney Adby in 1918 in France. Their names will also be on the Wycombe War Memorial along with my sons.
Mrs Fletcher researched by Sally Scagell and performed by Jan Caddie from Bucks Family History Society
