The Western Front ……. Australia …. and Southern Cemetery …… in memory of Corporal James I’anson

 This is one of the more than a million bronze memorials which were issued posthumously to the families of servicemen and women who died during the Great War.

The Bronze Plaque, 1919

It measures 122mm in diameter, depicts an image of Britannia holding a trident and standing beside a lion.

Two dolphins swim around Britannia and a second lion appears at the bottom.

Each plaque carried the name of the man or woman it commemorated with the inscription“died for Freedom and Honour”.

This one was for Corporal James I’anson of the 21st Battalion of the Manchester’s.

He was born in 1893, worked as a clerk in a warehouse and enlisted when he was 21 years old.

He was reported missing on September 3rd, 1916, and subsequently was found to have died on August 21st.

His name is recorded on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which records 72,337 missing servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme and have no known grave.

It would be a full year before his obituary appeared in the Manchester Evening News in the August of 1917, and the entry included that moving line, “Dearly loved by his FATHER, MOTHER, BROTHER (on active service) and SISTERS”. *

James I'anson, circa 1914-1916

It was acquired by David Harrop who has a large collection of memorabilia from both world wars, some of which are on display at his permanent exhibition in the Memorial Lodge at Southern Cemetery.

In time David intends to include Corporal I’anson’s bronze plaque at the Lodge, which was donated by an individual from Australia, who had contacted one of the groups associated with the Manchester Regiment.

They in turn put him in contact with David who accepted the donation.

Just how the plaque made its way to Australia is unclear, but it may be that one of his siblings emigrated to Australia, or it may just have been bought by a collector.

I am not sure we will ever know, but in the fullness of time I will search the stories of his brother and three sisters, but for now it is enough that the memorial to this young man has returned to the city of his birth.

Location; Moss Side, France, Australia, and Southern Cemetery

Pictures; the bronze plaque, 1919, and photograph of Corporal I’anson, circa 1914-1916, courtesy of David Harrop.

*Manchester Evening News, August 10th, 1917