Iron memorial fund

in honour of those that gave their lives

The proposed Memorial site in the village of Iron, Aisne. In the distance on the right hand side are the ruins of the mill where the 11 soldiers were concealed from  the Germans.

The memorials

A Memorial to the Iron 12 in Iron

 

We plan to erect a memorial in the village of Iron to the eleven British soldiers and to M. Vincent Chalandre, one of their principal carers, who was shot with them in the Château at Guise on 25 February 1915.  The precise location has yet to be decided, but it is hoped to erect it next to the existing village war memorial in the centre of the village and outside the village hall.  Traditionally this is the where the villagers of Iron meet each year for their remembrance commemoration ceremonies on November 11.

On the front face of the pedestal will be the names of the twelve engraved in gold lettering, with the British soldiers grouped by their regiments, and listed in alphabetical order.  Each of the other three faces will carry the regimental emblem of the three regiments to which the eleven British

 

 

soldiers belonged.

The pedestal will be surmounted by a bronze plaque which will record, in English and French, that:

 

· between October 1914 and February 1915 the village of Iron sheltered eleven British soldiers trapped behind German lines when the British army retreated to the Marne;

· while the whole village sheltered them, their principal carers were the Logez and Chalandre families;

· the eleven and Vincent Chalandre, were captured, and shot by the Germans in Château on February 25 1915.

 

· we remember not only the Iron 12 and their carers, but all Allied soldiers who died because they refused to surrender, and those who cared for them.

A Headstone for Vincent Chalandre

 

As part of the research for this project, we managed to locate the last resting place of Vincent Chalandre.  He is buried a few yards away from the eleven and his grave is in a state of utter neglect, a sad end indeed for a man once considered by the British Government to be amongst the very bravest of all the French and Belgian civilians to have helped British soldiers on the run.

 

Vincent Chalandre’s unmarked grave in the civil cemetery in Guise.