Oliver Strangward 1895 - 1917

Oliver was the second youngest child of Thomas and Lucy Strangward, born December 12th 1895.

He was apparently a bit of a character, according to the stories I have managed to collect while doing this side of my family history. His nephew, Ronald Strangward, remembered a story that indicates that he had an intense dislike of injustice. One day, walking in the street, he noticed a man beating the horse that was pulling his cart. He went over and snatched the whip out of the man’s hand and threatened to beat him with it. The wife of the man, who was on the cart at the time, later went to Oliver’s home to complain to his mother Lucy. Lucy, however, would have none of this and sent the woman packing.

Oliver joined up in the first world war and entered the area of military history. His war record became available at The National Archives as part of the series of 'burnt' documents of World War I soldiers released on microfilm during 2000.

These, and the war diaries of his battalion during the time he served in Mesopotamia provide a valuable insight into his service in the Great War and the last months of his life. Oliver Strangward started my journey into family history and genealogy and I have enjoyed finding out more about him.

Oliver died in Mesopotamia on April 13th 1917

He is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on the Basra Memorial in Iraq

In Memory of
OLIVER STRANGWARD

Private
30285
8th Bn., Royal Welsh Fusiliers
who died on
Friday, 13th April 1917.

Commemorative Information

Memorial:
BASRA MEMORIAL, Iraq
Grave Reference/Panel Number
Panel 15

Location:

The Basra Memorial was originally sited within Basra War Cemetery but in 1997 the Memorial was moved by presidential decree. The move, carried out by the authorities in Iraq, involved a considerable amount of manpower, transport costs and sheer engineering on their part, and the Memorial has been re-erected in its entirety. The Basra Memorial is now located 32 kilometres along the road to Nasiriyah, in the middle of what was a major battleground during the Gulf War. The Memorial consists of a roofed colonnade of white Indian stone, 80 metres long, with an obelisk 16 metres high as the central feature. 

The names are engraved on slate panels fixed to  the wall behind the columns. More than 40,000 British, Indian and West African dead who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the Autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921, are commemorated on the Memorial.

When the news of his death came, it was reported in the Pontefract and Castleford Advertiser:

Another Old  Church Hero

 
News has been received that Pte Oliver Strangward, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, fifth son of Mr and Mrs Strangward, of 2, Weeland Cottages, Old Church, was killed in action on April 13th. The deceased young hero was only 21 years of age. He joined the Army in January of last year, and went out with his battalion to Mesopotamia in June. He formerly worked as an engine-fitter with Messrs. Lumb and Co., Castleford, and, like other members of the family - Mr Strangward senior, was employed at the Old Church Fellmongery works for very many years before the C.W.S took them over, and has remained with them ever since - was very highly esteemed by all who knew him. He has two older brothers in the service - Arthur, formerly on our staff as an apprentice, and then a reported on a Norwich journal, but now a sergeant in the A.S.C. in France, and Herbert, formerly with Messrs. Muscroft, and now in the A.S.C at Sheffield.

The family also placed a a death notice in the Advertiser...

STRANGWARD - Killed in action in Mesopotamia on April 13th 1917, Private Oliver Strangward, fifth son of Mr and Mrs T Strangward, 2, Weeland Cottages, Old Church, Pontefract, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, aged 21 years.

  Sleep on, dear son, in a far-off land,
  In a grave we may never see.
 But as long as life and memory last,
  We will remember thee.