Re-dedication of David Hopkinson's Memorial Plaque

Following the closure and subsequent sale of the Methodist Church Hall, the plaque commemorating David Hopkinson was returned to the Parish Council.  At the Remembrance Sunday service the plaque was re-dedicated and can now be found in All Saints Church, North Scarle.  Thanks to Parish Councillor Richard Pullen for his research and speech at the re-dedication which you can read below:

David Hopkinson was not a remarkable or a special man, he wasn’t a professional Soldier, he wasn’t used to the horrible sights, sounds and actions of war. He was a normal man with his whole life ahead of him. He had a good career planned as a Wheelwright, for which he’d trained here in North Scarle. He’d moved to Nottingham where he would work with his brother in law. However, as with so many other men, the outbreak of a World War brought an end to his plans. He married his sweetheart, Catherine and went off to fight in France, having joined the army in November 1914.

David was a model soldier and was soon promoted to Lance Corporal, but in mid 1916 he found himself in an area which will forever conjure up images of the absolute horror of WW1; ‘The Somme’. This battle would last from July until November; it would see the introduction of the first tanks and it would see the British army lose over 420,000 men, killed, wounded or missing in just five months. Added to this, the offensive cost the lives of more than 200,000 French soldiers and over 500,000 German soldiers, killed, wounded or lost in action.

On the first day of the Battle of The Somme, July 1st 1916 David Hopkinson went into battle with the rest of the 11th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. He would have been dressed in the same uniform we see on the mannequin near the Memorial Plaque. The men were told that they could simply stroll across No-Mans land as the British bombardment would have destroyed the German barbed wire and killed every German soldier for miles around. This was not true and by the end of the first day, the British had lost almost 60,000 men, missing, killed or wounded. Many of these men would never be seen again, their bodies lost in the thick mud or simply destroyed by enemy fire. David was one of them.

In the weeks after the start of the battle, there was a huge amount of confusion about just how many men had been killed or taken prisoner and families at home were desperate for any news. A comrade of David's told the family that he’d seen David wounded on the battlefield, but could say no more. David Mother and Father wrote many letters from North Scarle to the War Office, pleading for any news and eventually on July 23rd, almost a month after he’d gone into battle, his parents received this letter from one of his officers.

“Dear Sir, I have made enquiries about your son and find that he was in the attack about three weeks ago. I am very sorry to say he has been missing since then, only a few of our men were taken prisoner and I am afraid we cannot hold out much hope, he was a valuable N.C.O and is greatly missed by his company. Yours Sincerely, Second Lieutenant G.S. Unwin”

David Hopkinson's body was never found, he has no known grave and his name appears on the Thiepval memorial in Northern France. This memorial bears the names of 72,000 men who fought in the area and were lost in battle, but have no known grave.