War Memorial

The remains of my great-grandfather, Peter Degville, lie in Brompton Cemetery. He died on 10th April 1915 after being mortally wounded perhaps in the same action in which his comrade Thomas Degville was killed.

CWGC "Debt of Honour Register" Listing

In March 1915 the Second Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment were at the front in the area of Givenchy. The Defense of Givenchy in December 1914 seems to have flowed in to the First Action at Givenchy on 25 January 1915 and then the Second Action on the 15 and 16 June.

Trench Map Givenchy June 1916

Peter Degville was born in 1883 so he was about 32 years old at the time of his death. He endured a hard life and probably suffered a hard death. I doubt whether the same pressures that caused him to enlist exist today's society. Yet we still seem to be troubled by our notions of class, sex, nation and race. The connections that exist between people, particularly in Europe and the United States, make such categorisations absurd.

In the line around them would have been troops from other parts of the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) "Debt of Honour Register" is an online database of the 1.17 men and women of the Commonwealth forces and of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died during the two world wars and the 23,000 cemeteries, memorials and other sites worldwide where they are commemorated and of the 67,000 Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War.