Nicholas Weatherby Hill
Location: St Andrews Church
Town/village: St. Bartholomew Street, Donhead St. Andrew,
County: Wiltshire
Postcode: SP7 9EB
Details on cross:
Top part of shaft there is the following:
GRU tag which reads:
GRU5
painted Light Infantry Insignia
In a scroll ‘In memory’
Of
On crossbeam reads:
Capt. N W Hill MC
52nd Lt INFty
Below cross beam:
Killed in Action 16.1.17
Cross dimensions:
Shaft height: 122cm very large decorative notches cut on each side at the top and shaped to a point
Cross Beam width: 76.5cm very large decorative notches cut at each end and shaped to a point
Width of wood: 8.5cm
Thickness: unable to measure as set into wall
Evidence of use: staining, cracking
Depth into earth: 27cm
Other Information: Wood is in good condition except a crack at the very top. Painted white with beveled edges towards and including the notches which are painted black.
Set into stone wall of the church above which are two brass plaques (see pictures) which read:
To the Glory of God and
In Proud and Loving Memory of
Nicholas Weatherby Hill M.C Captn
2nd Battn Oxford and Bucks Light Inftry
Born at Weeke near Winchester Aug 7
1896. Who fell in Action on the Somme
On the night of January 16 1917 and lies
In the Military Cemetery at Courcelette
France
The Wood Cross below marked his grave
Until replaced by a permanent headstone
And was made and erected by the regiment
To his memory
Biographical Information: Son of Henry L. G. an architect and Mary Hill, of Donhead Cottage, Donhead, Salisbury. Scholar of Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He is buried at Courcelette British Cemetery in the Somme Region of France. He was a Captain in the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry. He was 20 when he was killed.
Native of Weeke, Winchester. In 1901 census aged 4 he was living with his parents in Weeke Village, Winchester, In 1911 he was a boarder at Winchester College and a promising cricketer. More information here.
Survey and Photographs by Amanda Bristow
