A rededication service was held for Sapper Stanley Evelyn Barnden at 2.30pm (local time) at Kandahar Farm Cemetery at Nieuwkerke.

Sapper Barnden served with 17th Field Coy. Royal Engineers and was killed in action on 12 December 1914.

CWGC installed a headstone bearing his name and personal inscription chosen by his family, and care for his grave in perpetuity.

The service has been organised by the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre and was attended by Defence Staff, Regimental representatives, CWGC staff and local dignitaries. Members of the public were welcome to attend.

Sapper Stanley Evelyn Barnden was born in Walton-le-Soken, Essex, in 1889. He was one of five children born to Arthur Elisha and Elizabeth Garnett Barnden. As a pre-war regular, he was sent to the Western Front on the outbreak of war, arriving on 18 August 1914.

Sapper Barnden was serving with 17th Field Company, Royal Engineers, when he was killed on 12 December 1914 near Neuve-Eglise. His section was tasked constructing dugouts in the firing line. Sapper Barnden and a comrade were working inside a dugout when it collapsed, burying them both. His comrade was pulled out alive, but Sapper Barnden was found to have been killed by the faling debris.

He was buried in Kandahar Farm Cemetery, but it appears that throughout the course of war the marker over his grave was damaged and his name was lost. He therefore lay here as an unknows soldier for more than a hundred years, and he was commemorated on the Menin Gate. However, new research has shown that this is the grave of Sapper Barnden and the headstone over the grave was changed to reflect this. On Tuesday 8 March we remembered Sapper Barnden and his  grave was redidicated.

Kandahar Farm Cemetery was used by Commonwealth divisions holding the sectoir from November 1914 to April 1918, when it fell into German hands with the capture of Wulvergem and Neuve-Eglise (Nieuwkerke). the two villages were recovered in early September and the cemetery was used again. Sapper Barnden was among the original burials of 1914 and lies alongside 445 casualties of the First Word War. 



p







The service was conducted by The Reverend Nick Sharpe CF, Chaplain 4th Battalion The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment.



The different military representatives actively took part in the ceremony.











The Last Post







followed by one minute of silence and the Reveille.





Laying of the wreaths by the different military and civilian authorities.





























  Page made by WO1.be / Greatwar.be.