big thank you to Priti and Devendra Singh Parmar for all their hard efforts to bring us this very interesting piece of history to light.
WAR MEMORIAL
at Nagrakata Club
We are indebted to Priti and Devandra Parmar who has found this old monument close to the Nagrakata club in the Dooars
Priti says it was covered by over growth, lost and forgotten as it stands at Nagrakata club for almost 9 decades. Priti also tells us that she has spent 30 years in Dooars and never noticed it. Nor has anybody ever mentioned it.
One more case of forgotten war heroes Heroes who acted above
the call of duty and in doing so gave definition
to patriotism and elevated all of us.
Priti went to the trouble and using her already proven painting skills hand traced the words etched on copper plate barely readable on all four sides, and I quote Priti;
I am awestruck as I read on. It says...
In affectionate memory of Dooars planters
Who fell in the Great War
Their name liveth for evermore
This memorial is erected by their brother planters
BELOW ARE THE PHOTOGRAPHS WHICH ARE SELF EXPLANATORY
Those of the Great War
O.R.ILBERY, CHAS. ERISCH, W.F.JACKSON, J.TYSON-TYSON. A.P.SELWYN, E.W.KEEN, I.J.ASHWORTH
J.G.S.MITCHELL D.L.SHELDON, H.T.STORES , A.STOURTON, A.M.THOMSON, K.A.YOUNG
D.E.M.COOK, R.M.CRICHTON, G.B.FEATHERSTONE, J.GILMOUR,
P.PERCY LANCASTER,J.LITTLEJOHN, J.S.MACKENZIE
Above is Priti's husband Devendra Singh Parmar
who helped Priti so much with this project and we thank them both
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Priti would like to dedicate this poem to the fallen
by
Carole Mathys
He slumps head down
in a doorway
forlorn, weary and ill
His moment of glory forgotten
in a foreign battle upon a hill
The shadows of memories linger on
in the ghosts of buddies
who lay slaughtered and dead
He is filled with regrets
for things he left unsaid
On that day valiantly he fired
trying to save his stricken friends
until only he survived
Now the nightmares never end
and the country he defended
soon forgot him
just another vagrant, they all say
and nobody even remembers
that they called him
a hero that day
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