Buckland Newton will soon be celebrating the addition of Harry Dibben’s name to the village war memorial.
Harry died in 1916 in Belgium and his remains have only recently been identified and reburied.
We plan to invite the families of the all the other men commemorated on the memorial to the event.
Two families are proving particularly difficult to trace. A. Bates died in the Second World War. There are two Bates, both Albert, recorded as RAF overseas deaths.
So far, it has proved impossible to find the line of his family and there are over 140 Bates on the phone around Dorset.
The second family is that of Sidney Smith. He was born in Bournemouth and married Flora who came from Milton Abbas.
They had a son, also Sidney, and obviously lived in the village before Sidney went to war in 1915 and never returned.
If any readers have any ideas about either family their information would be most welcome.
Please contact me on 01300 345586 or richardbonnie@fsmail.net
Richard Bonnie, Buckland Newton
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