Caring for John Crossman's grave

Just heard from my friend in Chalfont St Giles.

He told me that the working party had a successful day's work in the churchyard the other day and all graves, including John Crossman's, are looking much neater. The grass had grown rather long because, my friend seems to remember, the previous monthly working party had been rained off.  This time, despite the forecast of rain, it remained dry but it was not easy work.

Sitting here so far away in Australia, it is wonderful to know that John Crossman and others who, like him, fell in war are being cared for so well by the dedicated men and women of Chalfont St Giles.

Extract from Australian Eagles: Australians in the Battle of Britain

John was the first man killed in the Second World War to be buried in Chalfont St Giles and the village grieved his loss as if he were one of their own. Indeed, he was buried as one of their own: ‘Ordinarily’ wrote Ann Brawn [John Crossman's aunt] to her brother, ‘it would have cost £50 to bury him but our rector let him be laid at ease as one of us’. Many villagers sent flowers and attended the funeral. John’s aunts sent a cross of bronze chrysanthemums and ordered another of laurel leaves, white chrysanthemums and red carnations on behalf of John’s parents, and sprays of Michaelmas daisies from his sister Joan and Patricia Foley. The young pilot was buried in the local churchyard beside his aunt, Florence Crossman, as Ann thought her brother would rather his son be ‘laid here than among strangers’.

John's family made the right decision in burying him in Chalfont St Giles. He is still considered 'one of us'.

(John's grave before it's regular spruce up, when the poppies are in bloom)

http://www.kristenalexander.com.au/books/australian-eagles

John Crossman's Grave

My correspondent in Chalfont St Giles just sent through a very moving note about John Crossman:

'This afternoon, I looked after my youngest grandchildren [10 and 7] while they played by the stream flowing by the back of the churchyard. After that adventure ended without mishap, they decided they would like to visit Grandma's plaque in the churchyard. They were also interested in the war graves [their great-grandfather had been killed in WW2] so we looked at a couple of graves, including that of John Crossman, which has a small photo of him on the grave. The photograph wrapped in thin plastic sent with the wreath from Forest Row was not very waterproof, so a friend of mine used a copy of the formal photo you sent me to produce a replacement, with name added in small print, which he encapsulated and placed on John Crossman's grave. I explained to the children that John's story would be in your book and they were impressed when I showed them the same photograph in your flyer.'

John Crossman no longer has family living in Chalfont St Giles, where he is buried. His grave is now tended by the members of the parish church. It is wonderful to know that he is still remembered, and a younger generation are now aware of their links to Australia and the Battle of Britain.