Lance Corporal TTS Bourne

Lance Corporal TTS Bourne

This memorial headstone has had a most extraordinary life before being presented to us in late 2021.

It was originally erected at the Primitive Methodist Church at Moira by his grieving parents.  The church closed and the building was converted to a special needs school.  Presumably the memorial was “in the way”.  It was unceremoniously dumped behind a shed.  Exactly when we do not know.

In 2021 boys at the school playing football in the yard and the inevitable happened.  The ball went over a shed.  The master went to retrieve the ball and there among the rotting leaves and other rubbish was this filthy white marble headstone.  It was difficult to read because the incised letters were not coloured.

Luckily, the master who found it was also a military historian and after much research tracked down a living niece.  She was overwhelmed because she had always been so proud of her uncle.  She had it cleaned, presented to us and with her permission we had the letters coloured.

When mounted with its story board we held a little re-dedication service with three generations of the family and the person who found it.  Most moving.