Barnes, E.L. (Miss)

This began as a work related trip, to look at the local War Memorial with a view to sprucing it up.

I have looked at many war memorials, and never before have I noticed one bearing a woman's name. this is not to say they don't exist, but perhaps they are not marked. I wanted to take a picture anyway, but as I was lining up for a shot, who should walk past and point out her name to me but the honoured's brother.

Apparently she served in the ATS and was killed (?) in Glasgow. I've since looked her up here and discovered that she died in July 1945, and is buried in the local cemetery, as well as being mentioned here. She was 24.

I could hardly walk away without choosing her name for my blip, could I?

This is Radstock War Memorial, with the distinctive mining sheave wheel in the background. Radstock, whilst often feeling like a depressed mining village, has an excellent museum about the Somerset mines. The last two pits of the Somerset coal measures to be closed were at Writhlington and Kilmersdon in 1973, just outside Radstock and probably under my office chair.

The Memorial was moved a few years back to make a feature of some desolate wasteland (and almost certainly to allow for housing to be built on its former location!!!).