Every year, on Remembrance Day, we gather round the Memorial Cross in front of All Saints’ Church in Hilton, Dorset, and read the names of the men who left the Hilton & Ansty Parish Community and did not return. As the centenary of the end of the ‘war to end all wars’ approached, it felt important to remember more than just their names. I wanted to discover a more three-dimensional picture of who we were remembering as well as those who stood next to the memorial when it was new, remembering their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers.

In total 19 men from our quiet farming community are remembered. The men who left were farm and brewery workers from the Hall & Woodhouse Brewery in Ansty. Edward Woodhouse, the grandson of George Edward Woodhouse, a founding partner of Hall & Woodhouse, is among those remembered.There are three Commonwealth War Graves in the All Saints’ Churchyard. One is the grave of Frederick Samways who was 19 when he died on 8 January 1919, in a hospital in Chelsea. Frederick was serving with the Wiltshire Regiment in France on 12 April 1918 when he was reported missing. He had been taken prisoner. He was held at Dülmen Prisoner of War Camp until the end of the war, when he returned to England. Next to the burial record in the church is a note: ‘Prisoner of War starved by the Germans’.

During my research I discovered that Frederick Samways was a bell ringer remembered on the Salisbury Diocesan Guild of Ringers roll of honour, along with another Hilton casualty, William Drake. William Drake was a garden worker, according to the 1911 census. Born in Hilton, he had eight siblings. He joined the Dorsetshire Regiment at the start of the war and was with them during the disastrous campaign in Gallipoli in 1915. He was reported missing presumed dead on 21 August 1915. He was 24. In a letter from his sister, Minnie, returned unopened, she tells ‘Willie’ of an open-air service that was held at Milton Abbey where those serving had their names read out. Who knows if there were bell ringers to ring on that day.

It was this research that prompted a group of us to take up bell ringing. Our primary objective at the outset was to make sure that the bells of All Saints rang on 11 November 2018 in honour of Frederick Samways and William Drake. We have six complete beginners ranging from 16 to a little older(!), as well as two experienced ringers who are taking it up again with the help of local ART ringing teachers. Beyond the joy of the sound of the bells ringing regularly, we have discovered the social side, with coffee and cakes at every practice. We have visited other towers and made new friends.After ringing on 11 November a couple of us were enjoying a pub lunch in a nearby village when someone greeted us: “You’re one of us,” recognising the Ringing Remembers badge we were proudly wearing.

I guess we are now.

This article first appeared in the 10th edition of Tower Talk, ART’s free quarterly e-newsletter for new ringers. If you would like to receive future copies of the publication, please subscribe here