At the time of both World Wars Stanwick St John was the parish chu
rch service Aldbrough, Stanwick and Carlton, consequently that is where the memorials were erected.
Stanwick has a fine memorial plaque with a slightly unusual dedication reading:
IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE
LOYAL MEN OF THIS PARISH WHO FOUGHT
FOR GOD AND RIGHT IN THE GREAT WAR
1914 - 1918
THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO DID NOT
RETURN ARE ENGRAVEN BELOW
JOHN BARTROM
FRANK BASTOW NORMAN BASTOW
JOHN MOSES BEACH G FRED BLACKBURN
RALPH WM. FENWICK GEORGE HUTCHINSON
JAMES WM. STENSON WM. M SWAINSTON
The fight was "for God and right" rather than the more usual "King and Country"
The two Bastow brothers apparently had little connection with the parish other than that their widowed mother had remarried the vicar at the time. They had lived a middle class life that took them from boarding school to university to the army and had no real attachment to anywhere in the country, so they were remembered on their mother's then parish memorial,
William Swainston returned to the parish and died of his injuries. He is buried in Stanwick churchyard and his grave is an official War Grave despite not being the standard headstone design.
We also have in our possession his Death Medal struck for all those who gave their lives in the Great War and it will be part of the War memorial in St Paul's church, Aldbrough St John from Remembrance Sunday 2020. There are no close members of his family left and it has obviously been passed on from one careful parishioner to another until a final place was found for it.
Also remembered at Sta
nwick is John James Barker, the only name from this second connflict.
A British Legion standard remains within the church.
