Frederick  Garton Greenway from Downend died 100 years ago on the Somme. As we commemorate Remembrance this year, we will be looking a bit more closely into the life and service of one Downend soldier and his sacrifice during the First World War. Come and hear first hand at Christ Church on Thursday 10 November at 9.30am from Stephen & May Ann Taylor and Graham Ball about how they unraveled Frederick’s story.

The names of 180 men who died in the First World War are inscribed above the front door of Christ Church Downend.  This is the story of one of them, FCG Greenway.

There is a plaque inside the church which shows that Frederick Charles Garton Greenway, a second lieutenant in the 8^th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, died at the battle of the Somme on 14 July 1916 aged 20.  At the end of a church service on 14 July this year two church members (Graham Ball and Stephen Taylor) realised that the day marked the hundredth anniversary of his death.   Graham searched internet records and found that his name is recorded on the Thiepval monument for the missing 72,000 soldiers from the Somme battlefields.  With this information Stephen and his wife, May Ann, were able to locate his name on the memorial during a visit to the Somme in September.  They also found that his is one of the 600 photos in the Missing of the Somme Panel displayed in the Thiepval reception centre.  A poppy cross, with his name, was placed on the grave of an unknown soldier from the Leicestershire Regiment on behalf of Christ Church Downend.