The Stone Cross

All that we had we gave:
All that was ours to give:
Freely surrendered all,
That you in peace might live.
In trench and field and many seas we lie -
We who in dying shall not ever die
If only you in honour of the slain
Shall surely see we did not die in vain

Words of remembrance underlying the poignant events of The Great War. Two men, likely friends, from Ryston and Bexwell fell on the battlefields of France exactly a year apart on the 25 September in the years 1915 and 1916. This memorial to their falling is one of the first erected, privately commissioned and erected whilst the conflict continued.

 Second Lieutenant Lionel Henry Pratt, 18th Battalion of the London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) was the third son of Edward Roger Murray Pratt and Louisa Frances Pratt of Ryston Hall. He fell on the 25 September 1915 at the age of 25 in the Battle of Loos and buried in a mass grave at Maroc British Cemetery, Grenay

 Second Lieutenant Charles Prangley, 1st Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment was the son of Rector Charles Wilton Prangley and Elizabeth Prangley of Bexwell Rectory. He fell on the 25 September 1916 at the age of 19 at the Battle of Morval on the Somme and is buried at the Guards Cemetery in LesBoeufs.

 The Stone Cross War Memorial lies on what was the parish boundary of Bexwell and Ryston, on the possible site of a medieval cross along path of pilgrimage. This site is now hidden away behind the business units on the A10 (opposite Arbuckles / Downham Home & Garden Centre / Petrol Station) and accessible from the A10 or via foot paths and permissible byways from Downham, Bexwell and Ryston.

 Annually on the 25 September a memorial service is held to which all are welcome to attend. This year (2017) the service will be 14:30.
For further information why not check out these references:

 The last restoration of the memorial was led by students from Downham in 2011. Their write up for the War Memorials Trust can be found here. The EDP also published a story on their work here.

 More information can be found on the listing of the memorial at Historic England here. of War Memorials Online here.

 For the story of Second Lieutenant Prangley or 'Doox' as he was known: Doox - A Soldier of the Great War and His Legacy by John Pollock (last published Truro 2005), ISBN-10: 0954081048. A very limited stock are available from the Town Council. 

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