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Localisation - Situering: Broad Balk Lane,
Norton-le-Clay.
Coordonnées GPS - GPS-coördinaten:
+54°08'05.09", -01°23'00.16"
Inscription figurant sur la stèle - Opschrijving op de
gedenkplaat
"1914 - 1918
IN THIS HOUSE LIVED & DIED
A NOBLE WOMAN
MDME MARIA PHILOMENA
STES ROÊLL
A BELGIAN REFUGEE VICTIM
OF THE GREAT WAR.
THE FOLLOWING MEN
OF THIS VILLAGE SERVED THEIR
COUNTRY IN THE WAR :
[Seize noms d'anciens combattants anglais de Norton-le-Clay
- Zestien namen van oudstrijders van Norton-le-Clay]"
Informations complémentaires - Bijkomende informatie
This memorial takes the form of a stone plaque which names
the sixteen men of the village who served in the war and
returned. It also mentions Madame Maria Philomena STES ROELL,
a Belgian refugee, who lived "in this house". Mme ROELL must
have made quite an impression on the village to be named as
"a noble woman" on the village war memorial, which was
placed on the wall of the house in which she lived.
On our behalf, Mary MOSELEY, Secretary of the Ripon and
District Historical Society, checked the local parish
registers and found that there is a record of a funeral at
nearby Cundall:
21 September 1915 Maria Philomena STES ROELL Norton-le-Clay.
Age 45.
The little church at Norton-le-Clay has no burial ground, so
this must be why the interment took place at Cundall. Mary
MOSELEY visited the church at Cundall but could find no
inscription mentioning Mme ROELL on any of the legible
gravestones. Mme ROELL's Death Certificate tells us that she
died on eighteenth of September 1915 at Norton-le-Clay, of
cerebral meningitis. The certificate also tells us that she
was the wife of Alois ROELL, Upholsterer, Belgian Refugee,
Norton-le-Clay.
Before the Great War, Alois and Maria ROELL lived in the
lovely Flemish town of Lier (then known as Lierre), about
ten miles southeast of Antwerp, where they were both born in
1869. They had a shop and a house at Belarij No. 50 where
they lived with their three children: Beatrice age 8 (on
August 4th, 1914), Augusta age 7 and Jozef age 5.
The German Army invaded Belgium on the 4th of August 1914.
They were halted for a time at the crossing of the Meuse at
Liege by the gallant defence by the Belgian Army of the
Liege Forts, which finally ended on the 16th August. As the
German Army advanced again, about 65,000 men of the Belgian
Army retreated into the stronghold of Antwerp, which was
protected by two lines of forts. One fort of the outer line
was at Lier. The German Army built up the besieging force to
two army corps, and at the beginning of October began a
systematic reduction of Antwerp's defences. The outer line
of forts was breached on October 3rd. The British Royal
Naval Division arrived on the 4th. On the 5th the Germans
penetrated the inner line of forts. The bulk of the Belgian
Army escaped down the coast to Diksmuide (then known as
Dixmude), and Antwerp surrendered on the 10th of October.
In the fighting, the ROELLs' shop and house were shelled and
burned, like all the centre of Lier. "They had nothing left"
(Hilde, granddaughter of Alois and Maria). Fleeing from the
invaders, Alois and Maria with their children went by boat
to Hull and from there to Norton-le-Clay. Mr. & Mrs. TURNER
took care of them at "Ripon Cottage". As Hilde, expressed it,
"Everyone was very kind for my poor family". Then tragedy
struck again with the death of Mme. ROELL from cerebral
meningitis the following September. After the death of their
mother, the two girls were sent to the Convent of Mercy at
Boston Spa, and the boy went to a boarding school, unknown
(age 6 with a label round his neck and five changes of train
- in Hilde's words, "poor guy").
The family returned to Lier sometime after the end of the
war. Alois could not restart his shop, and worked for other
people. He lived in a small apartment in Dijske No. 2, Lier.
He died in Lier on the 27th of April 1954. The families
TURNER and ROELL have kept up contact to the present time (With
thanks to the "Thankful
Villages" web pages").
Plus d'informations concernant
cette victime - Bijkomende
informatie over dit slachtoffer
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