The August 2017 edition of the Hornchurch parish magazine records the death of a Hornchurch ringer, John Brockhurst, on November 2nd 1917 in Palestine during WW1. C.T. Perfect’s book about Hornchurch, written that year, lists among the ringers J.W. Brockhurst and J. Brockhurst who was the Tower Captain. It is likely that it is the former who was killed and the latter possibly his father.
On November 5th, the nearest Sunday to the centenary of John’s death, the current Hornchurch ringers rang a quarter peal for evensong and in memory of John Brockhurst.
The published details are as follows:
Hornchurch, Essex
St Andrew
Sunday, 5 November 2017
1250 Yorkshire Surprise Major
- Christopher C M Pain
- Ros C Skipper
- John W Stephenson
- Jillian Laken
- James Laken
- Matthew E Rayner
- Paul J Bloomfield
- Clive J Stephenson (C)
For Evensong and in memory of Private John Brockhurst, a ringer at St Andrew’s who fought in WW1 in Gallipoli and Palestine and was killed in action 100 years ago on 2/11/1917 aged 27
First in method – 2