British & Commonwealth Remembrance Project Annual Report 2022
The British & Commonwealth Remembrance Project Inc (hereinafter “the Project”), was established in September 2020 in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Project’s goal was to provide a local focal point for British Citizens, and those of British descent, to participate in Acts of Remembrance in November. At a time when UK/US travel was restricted and many felt detached and isolated, the Project was an important way for people to feel connected both to each other and with Great Britain.
As the world returned to a state of normalcy in 2021, the Project continued to grow and flourish. In 2022, a record number of volunteers participated. Our volunteers cross the generational divide. We have teenagers who participate with their friends, grandparents with their grandchildren, parents with toddlers, millennials, Gen X-ers who attend with friends. Our work is truly uniting people around a common cause of remembrance and thanksgiving. While our most visible participation was in war grave visits, volunteers also researched the individual histories of the British war dead in New England. That vital research uncovered the grave of a Scotsman who served under the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo and in the Peninsular Campaign, and the bodies of Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm aircrew, whose remains rest at the bottom of Lake Sebago, Maine.
Poppy crosses, supplied by the Royal British Legion and the Royal British Legion Scotland, were laid at all of the 124 individual Commonwealth War Grave Commission sites. A further 54 memorial and grave sites were made up of RAF/Fleet Air Arm/RCAF crash sites, British and Commonwealth Merchant Navy personnel grave sites, and the sites of British war graves falling outside the remit of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Once again, we worked in coordination with Commonwealth War Graves Commission North America Operations Office ensuring that volunteers noted graves that needed repairs, cleaning and amendments (spelling mistakes, etc.).
Our most successful social media post of the year, however, did not relate to one of the New England war graves, but the grave of 2nd Lt Eric McCauley Hector’s grave in Egypt, more information on the incredible story of how we were able to organize a poppy cross to be laid can be found on page six.
COVID 19 Restrictions
The Project was able to enjoy greater success this year as all COVID 19 restrictions were lifted in all New England states.
Financials and Fundraising
The Project was funded by public subscription. Donations originated from across all cross sections of the British and Commonwealth Communities in New England and further afield. The major areas of expense were
• $1,000 for the erection of a Grave marker in Somerville (which was then generously refunded by the supplier)
• $600.00 for Poppy Wreaths, and associated supplies from the Royal British Legion
• $450.00 postage and shipping costs
In 2023, the expenses are forecasted to be
• $2,000.00 Lt Ray H. Sawlor Memorial Marker
• $3,000.00 Sebago Lake Memorial Marker
• $600.00 Poppy crosses, wreaths etc from Royal British Legion etc.
• $450.00 postage and shipping costs
There was strong support from donors, for which we are very grateful. This year ,we also launched an “adopt a grave” scheme which allows a donor to support a named grave. The “adopt a grave’ scheme has proven popular and is anticipated to grow in scale in coming years.
The Milk Row Cemetery Grave Marker
The “Battle Road”, and the engagements between the British and the Minutemen on April 9th, are widely recounted in New England. Less well known are the grave locations of those British Soldiers who were killed returning to Boston from Lexington and Concord. This year the Project was able to fund a marker at a previously unmarked grave in Milk Row Cemetery in Somerville. The work was completed and the marker dedicated by the Mayor of Somerville during Somerville History Week. Our thanks to the City of Somerville for making this happen.
Lt Ray H. Sawlor Memorial Marker
Lt Sawlor was from a Canadian family but was raised in the busy New England town of Townsend. He graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and pursued a career as a wireless engineer. He volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps as a Wireless Operator and served on the Western Front. He was killed in action on 11 Aug 1917.
His hometown wish to formally acknowledge his sacrifice as he is their first WW1 death. The Project has agreed to fund a memorial marker. In 2023 we will formally dedicate a memorial to him on the Town Common.
The Sebago Lake Grave Marker
On May 16, 1944, a flight of British Navy D4V Corsairs, flew a low level formation training flight over Sebago Lake.
Among those taking part in the exercise was Sub-Lieutenant Vaughn Reginald Gill, piloting aircraft number JT-132, and Sub-Lieutenant Raymond Laurence Knott, age 19, piloting JT-160. Both men were assigned to 732 Squadron based at nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station.
As the formation was passing over the water, one aircraft suddenly dropped and struck the lake sending up a large plume of water that was struck by the second aircraft to crash into the Lake. Both aircraft immediately sank in over 300 feet of water and disappeared. Despite a search conducted immediately afterward, neither the airplanes or the pilots were found. The location of these aircraft and their aircrew was discovered in the late 1990s but there is no memorial or marker to record the resting place of these men.
The Project is actively working with other parties to create a solution, one of the most difficult aspects is to find an area of suitable land. Lake Sebago is one of Portland’s principal reservoirs and most of the land surrounding it is in private ownership. Assuming that land can be found then we shall commission a local stone mason to create and erect a memorial marker, so that the final resting place of these two airmen is preserved for posterity.
The photo on the right shows the new marker in situ.Images from the 2022 Acts of Remembrance. Further information can be found on our Facebook page
