Villagers in Acton Beauchamp will never forget lost brothers (From Hereford Times)

Villagers in Acton Beauchamp will never forget lost brothers

7:00am Friday 6th November 2009 in

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A VILLAGE has honoured a forgotten band of brothers who fought in the First World War.

Silence will descend on Herefordshire this Remembrance Sunday as the county remembers the fallen.

But churchgoers in Acton Beauchamp have already paid their respects by dedicating a plaque to three local soldiers.

Charles and James Bowkett, both privates with the Herefordshire Regiment, fought in the Great War along with Timothy Vernall.

Neither villager reached their 36th birthday, with all three dying from combat injuries between 1916 and 1929.

Their efforts were finally remembered last month when a memorial plaque was unveiled at St Giles’ Church.

The tribute was carved by Arthur J Virgo of Hereford and fitted above an existing Second World War memorial plaque in the church.

It was suggested by Mandy Palmer of the Bromyard Local History Society, and will be blessed this Remembrance Sunday.

“Mandy realised there was no memorial plaque in the church for these men,” said Sally Wall, St Giles’ churchwarden.

“We don’t know why they were overlooked. It was 90 years on and we wanted to put it right for them.”

Private James Bowkett, aged 19, lived at Coppice House and was buried in Egypt in 1916.

His brother, Charles, survived the conflict but died in 1929 from a lengthy illness, caused by exposure to gas in the trenches.

Lance Corporal Vernall, of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, was 27 when he died in March 1918. He died eight months before the ceasefire, and is buried near the Arras Memorial in northern France.