Lieutenant Arthur William Swanston

There are no available images for this memorial. Help us by submitting one!

Submit a new image

Reference WMO/280920

Address:

Holy Trinity and St Mary's Parish Church

Wallace Green

Berwick-upon-Tweed

TD15 1DE

England

Open large map

Edit memorial name, location & address

Status: On original site

Type: Non freestanding

Location: Internal

Setting: Attached to a building/structure

Description: Board/Plaque/ Tablet

Materials:

Metal Brass
Timber Timber (any)

Lettering: Inscribed on a plaque

Conflicts:

Boer War, Second (1899-1902)

About the memorial: South wall of chancel. Brass plaque set within a wooden frame. Incised inscription in red and black enamelled lettering. There are regimental badges incised in top left and right corners. Letters are sunk in casting and enamelled in red and black plain capitals. The regimental badge appears in the top right hand corner.

Edit memorial details

Report a concern with this memorial

Report a duplicate memorial record

Report an inappropriate record

Submit a condition update

Report this condition update

View more details

Grants to support the repair and conservation of war memorials are available from the charity War Memorials Trust if it has raised funds. Support is focused on war memorials in Very bad or Poor condition or where there is a serious Concern.

Before applying for a grant you should read the advice available on War Memorials Trust`s website. The What we can and cannot fund helpsheet explains what types of work the charity can fund.

If you believe your project is eligible for a grant you should complete the Pre-application enquiry form. You will need to be registered and logged in to complete this.

The Pre-application enquiry form is a series of questions to see if your project is eligible. If it is, you will need to provide further details and submit current colour photographs of the war memorial in either a png, gif, jpg or jpeg format.

You can save your Pre-application enquiry form as you go along. Once submitted War Memorials Trust will respond.

Please be aware that a summary of your enquiry, without your contact details, will appear on this page once submitted. This ensures others are aware that an enquiry has been made and can read the response to avoid duplicate enquiries. Information provided by you to us will be used for the purpose of managing the grant enquiry, for further details please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy .

pre-application

As a charity, War Memorials Trust relies on voluntary donations and every contribution, no matter how large or small, makes a really big difference to our work. Your donation will help protect and conserve war memorials for future generations so please support War Memorials Trust’s work.

donate here

Submit a new comment

Comments:

http://fancyhorse.blogspot.co.uk/2009_05_01_archive.html

"It is a short story about a grave and a bouquet of dry flowers, written by Ettie Bierman …. a true story. I will tell it partially in my own words and partially as a translation. It appeared in a magazine called “Women’s Choice” (Translated)

A BOUQUET FOR A HERO

In a cemetery near Lake Chrissie in Mpumalanga here in South Africa, there are old graves of soldiers who died in the Anglo Boer war. Boer and English soldiers are lying together … not in war, but in peace … for more than a century. There is one grave of an English soldier that has a story to it, not about the grave or the man who was buried there but about the woman who loved him. On this grave the inscription on the flat tombstone with the marble cross, tells that the man who was buried there, died in an attempt to save a comrade. This is an extraordinary story, a beautiful story, a heart breaking story, a story where the word love is never mentioned, yet the whole story is about LOVE, written in capitals.
The small leaded letters on the tomb stone are barely visible but it can still be read:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF
ARTHUR WILLIAM SWANSTON
LIEUT INNESKILLING DRAGOONS

SECOND SON OF JA AND FE SWANSTON
OF MARSHALL MEADOWS
BERNWICK-ON-TWEED

KILLED IN ACTION AT TEVREDEN
16TH OCT. 1900
WHILE ENDEAVOURING TO SAVE
THE LIFE OF PTE J GARLICK

ERECTED BY HIS PARENTS
AND BROTHER OFFICERS
INNESKILLING DRAGOONS

There is no grave for Garlick. Maybe he survived or was killed and buried somewhere else or in one of the graves without a tomb stone?

Ettie Bierman saw this grave and wanted to know more. She started to ask around in the small town. At the old Post Office she found the Postmaster who knew about the story although it happened long before her time. She was referred to an old lady, Rensie Kruger, a previous Post Master. Rensie was too late to experience the story herself but her predecessor knew it …… in fact, it is a story known in the region.
Rensie’s predecessor Babs Dawson died long ago but the story itself is still alive, since 1901.

That year a parcel from England arrived at the Post Office, addressed to the Post Master ….. a bouquet of dried flowers, sent by the fiancé of the late Arthur William Swanston. She requested the Post Master to put the flowers on Arthur’s grave on 16 October. Because she remember…….
Every year. Never the flowers were forgotten or lost it’s course ….so the story is told. Through two world wars. There was a year or two during World War 2 when the parcel stumbled and maybe got lost on route to its destination. But the next year it was there again and every year that followed, always in time for 16 October. Every year for more than 60 years. Love never dies…..up to 1963. That year there was a letter to say; “I am old and sick and I stay in an old age home. There will most probably be no flowers sent anymore”

The next year and all the years after that, there were no flowers. She was gone like her beloved. Nobody can remember what her name was.
On 16 October 2000 – 100 years after the heroic death of Arthur William Swanston, Ettie went to the cemetery and put some fresh flowers on Arthur’s grave.

Blood red roses from her garden. For the most beautiful story of eternal love that one can imagine."

Submitted by:

Submitted date:

Comments:

http://www.chrissiesmeer.co.za/graveyard.html

In the graveyard at Chrissiesmeer is one grave amid yellow veld flowers that appears distinctively different from the others. It is the only one enclosed by a fence and it has a flat, white marble cross in the middle.

The grave belongs to Arthur William Swanston, a young lieutenant from the Innskilling Dragoons who was killed on 10 October 1900 while endeavouring to save the life of a Private J. Garlick during the Anglo-Boer War. Garlick and two others were killed at the same time- and are buried close by.

What is touching about Swanston's story is not only his deed of heroism, but also the way he was remembered and honoured by his fiancée back home in Scotland. For 65 years after the war she sent flowers to the postmaster of Chrissiesmeer with a request to put them on Swanston's grave. They always arrived during the month of October. One year she'd send blue heather and the next year pink, always wrapped in the most beautiful matching ribbons. The post office also took responsibility for the upkeep of the grave and regularly painted the fence silver.

When the fiancée was in her early eighties she sent a letter with the bouquet explaining that, because of ill health, it might be the last time she would be sending flowers. She expressed her gratitude to the postmaster of Chrissiesmeer, Rensie van Rensburg, and her predecessors for their assistance over the years. After that the flowers arrived just once more. One can only but wonder who this unknown woman was and how the loss of her fiancée shaped her life.

During those years that the flowers came, the Post office and the Primary School, made a special occasion of it. They always cared after the grave and had a special annual ceremony when putting the flowers on the grave.

Now at every wild flower day the people of Chrissiesmeer still honour this love story by putting wild flowers on the grave at those days.

During the recent (2005) Engen 'Village of the Year' competition SABC 2 broadcast the story and received an overwhelming response. One man said he was so inspired by it that he had decided to become a better person.

It has been written that what makes life meaningful is not what happens to you, but what happens between people. This seems to be true even in death.

Submitted by:

Submitted date:

Submit a new link

Report this link

Edit information

Inscription:

IN MEMORY OF/ ARTHUR WILLIAM SWANSTON/ OF MARSHALL MEADOWS/ LIEUTENANT 6TH INNISKILLING DRAGOONS/ FORMERLY OF NORTHUMBERLAND ARTILLERY MILITIA/ KILLED IN ACTION NEAR CAROLINA, SOUTH AFRICA 16TH OCTOBER 1900/ WHILST TRYING TO SAVE/ THE LIFE OF A WOUNDED TROOPER/ HIS COMMANDING OFFICER WROTE OF HIM/ "THERE WAS NOT AN OFFICER OR MAN IN THE REGIMENT WHO DID NOT LOVE HIM"/ THIS TABLET WAS PLACED HERE BY HIS BROTHER OFFICERS/ OF THE NORTHUMBERLAND ARTILLERY MILITIA AUGUST 1901

Suggest information

Listing grade:

Information Required

Listing URL:

Information Required

Unique listing reference number:

Information Required

Conservation area:

Information Required

Local list / Historic environment record:

Information Required

Claim Custodianship

Custodian name:

Information Required

Custodian website:

Information Required