small brass plaque in a church in Dover

So if he 'retired' from the Army in 1958 aged 46 then he would have been born 1912, from Ancestry there is one Eric Gartside that fits this bill, but infoseeker would need to corroborate it:

England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 about Eric Gartside
Name: Eric Gartside Mother's Maiden Name: Bates Date of Registration: Apr-May-Jun 1912 Registration District: Oldham Inferred County: Lancashire Volume: 8d Page: 1341
TD

 

... but how will you recognise the plaque?
What would it need to have to "jog your memory"?
A brass plaque in a church in Dover area, presumably only for WW2 and probably RA related.
Needle, haystack, at least give us a magnet!

 

The plaque I found is in the church within Dover Castle grounds that is known as the garrison church. It has the RAA chapel in one recess (locked) . This church was used by the service personal that were stationed in or around the castle ie; Coastal artillery for one. From what I understand the RAA chapel only has RA approved memorial plaques in there. The plaque in question is in the recess opposite the RAA chapel . It could have been in another church but it would have to have been in a church that closed after 1974 and relocated. On the plaque you can make out , bottom center, 101 Coastal Brigade, which was the unit I assume he was a WO in. Coastal Artillery was disbanded in 1956 and this plaque commemorates the service of the Coastal Artillery up to this point. The plaque looks like it was commissioned by former members of the Coastal guns privately ,sometime after the disbandment, which would explain why its not in the chapel and placed here. I would say that this is the plaque that he had made ,with other people?, whilst in Dover to highlight the service of Coastal Guns. The thing is that a lot of the gunners were local TA Coastal gun units called up for the duration, so he could have done it with some of them.. My own opinion is that this is his plaque that he/ they had made to remember the service of the Coastal guns.,

 

TD, yes that is my grandad. 6/6/1912-2008.

Waiting for service records, but I could be waiting until December.

 

Good - although that is why he has no death cert yet - they only go to 2006 at the moment. Where was his death recorded? geographically.

Are you a member of Ancestry, I ask as there is the possibility that there are 'Gartsides' who have created a family tree and may know something about your 'problem' - or not as the case may be.

TD

 

KevinBattle, yes I realise it's a needle & haystack job, perhaps I should have worded the last sentence of my original post a tad differently. Maybe I should have asked whether records are kept of this sort of thing, or whether I would need to contact individual parishes, or even indivdual Churches.

I have not been in many Churches, so I didn't realise how common brass plaques in Churches were.

From the ones I have been in recently brass plaques are not so common even though at least 3 different branches of the armed forces have played a large part in this city over the last 800 or more years, (it would seem that they are more common in the churches that have some affiliation to the forces).

Is there any particular information you would like to know that maybe of help?

 

TD, Portsmouth, and no I'm not a member of Ancestry but no-one else I've asked can remember it having been mentioned.

 

OK, the reason why I don't think it was the Garrison Church at the castle is because the RA chapel is presumably the same size as the recess opposite (where the plaque is) and if I remember correctly the recess in the Church that we were taken to was nowhere near as big as that.

Since the day of the original post I have had some information from a relative who said that grandad didn't use the the RA chapel except maybe for special services, as a family they attended the Methodist Church on/near Snargate street, as yet I have not been able to look into this.

 

The Methodist church was demolished 1965, as infoseeker has found out , the other small Methodist chapel was taken over by Dover College which leaves the Methodist church at the top end of Dover. I will pop in when its open and see if they have any info or if it was moved to there. I will also ask a colleague who is in the RAA if they have any info. Normally when a church closes the memorial plaques are relocated to appropriate sites.

 

Churches need a "faculty" (approval) for work to be done, add a plaque or make alterations, so there may be some record of this plaque that way, from the diocese.

Personally, TG has come up with what seems to be the best candidate for the plaque AND why it's not where you remember it - that Church is no more, so rather than bin a plaque, it was resited in the next best place the RAA Garrison chapel!

 

There is a member of Ancestry who has an Eric Gartside born 1912 in there family tree - but no date of death - Father was William Gartside (? - ?) and Mother was Louisa Bates (1888 - ?). The only sourced record they have against his name is the same birth info as above (#21), but what else they have could only be found out by contacting them, however they may have less than you already have.
I can say that he had a brother Norman (1917 - ?) and a sister (private info)

TD

 

TD, yes that's them. Although I don't know why grandads sister is not named on it.

If you look for my introductory post you'll see that you helped with the initial search for info (not sure how to do links, so I'll find it and bump it to the top).

Someone found some photo's

 

TD, it was you who found one of the photo's.

Technical question, how do I transfer photographs from this site to somewhere I don't need internet access for, some relatives do not have computers and can't come to me?

Thanks

 

Infoseeker

Re images/photographs - I think there are 2 ways to 'transfer'

1. Open the image and in the bottom right hand corner you have the option to 'Save' or 'Close'
2. Right mouse click on the image and then 'Save as...'

Perhaps it might be worth joining Ancestry.co.uk and contacting the owner of the 'Parr family tree' for more information as perhaps they are an unknown relation of yours.

I have sent a contact message to them giving the links to both the topics you started so that can see whats happening.

TD

 

TD, thanks for the info, now I definitely know who did the family tree although I didn't know that it was done on Ancestry if you see what I mean. I thought that maybe the one on Ancestry was done by someone else.

 

Infoseeker,

PM on its way to you

TD