“Thursday 25th September 2025 marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Loos, a conflict of the First World War that left 48,387 UK and Empire soldiers dead or wounded. St. Mary’s parishioners using the main entrance from the quadrangle will notice what architects described as a “rusticated block” next to the flower bed commemorating the death of Walter Gaisford in this battle.
Walter was the youngest son of the founder of S. Mary’s, Sir Thomas Gaisford, and his third wife, Alice. A career soldier, he led his regiment, the Seaforth Highlanders, to his death on 25th September. Walter has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Loos Memorial at Dud Corber Cemetery in France (panels 112 – 115), and in the Scottish National War Memorial, Edinburgh Castle, and on St. Mary’s own memorial on the external east wall of the church.
Walter’s mother erected a large Calvary in his honour in the quadrangle at St Mary’s, and the rusticated block is all that remains of this memorial. It appears to have disappeared around 1938. On that same day the son of another famous Sussex personage was killed at Loos – John Kipling, son of Rudyard. He had recently been commissioned into the Irish Guards. His father’s poignant and moving poem, “My Son Jack” was written about his search for his remains.
Please pray for an end to war and for peace on Earth, for the Gaisford family, and for our own church community.