WW1
There are 223 WW1 graves in the cemetery and over 45 other people, who were killed in action and buried abroad if at all, are mentioned on family gravestones.
A grade II listed World War I memorial is situated in front of the chapel and is surrounded by war graves. We have published a book about the WWI graves, including those near the memorial plus others which are in the cemetery.
The 4th August 2014 was the centenary of Great Britain entering the war. The Friends of Higher Cemetery commemorated this with a guided tour of the WW1 graves.
In November 2014, we held an exhibition and free tours of the graves. Friends of Higher Cemetery placed a wreath on the WW1 memorial at the Royal Marines Association Armistice Day Service.
In the autumn of 2016 two of our events were associated with the CWGC Living Memory project. We were awarded a certificate for our contribution to the project.
On 11th November 2018 Todd Gray gave a talk about The End of World War 1, in the Higher Cemetery chapel.
HMS Defence
The Battle of Jutland
31st May 2016 was the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland. There is a memorial to one of the victims of this momentous sea battle in the cemetery. Jack Arthur Charles Kneel is not buried here as his ship, HMS Defence, sank in the North Sea with all 903 crew members, among whom incidentally were nine other men from Exeter. The stone records that Jack, an Assistant Clerk, was only 17.
HMS Defence was an armoured cruiser built in 1908 with a gross tonnage of 14600 tons. Its main armament was four 9.2 inch and ten 7.5 inch guns, no match for the big 12 inch guns of the German battleships. She was the Flagship of Rear Admiral Robert (Sandy) Arbuthnot, who took the brave but foolhardy decision to engage the superior German force, and in doing so prevented Sir David Beatty in the Lion with her 13.5 inch guns from doing so. The inevitable outcome was that Defence was blown out of the water and sank taking all on board to the bottom.
Jutland was a confused affair. The British Grand Fleet lost more ships and men than the German High Seas Fleet, but it was a decisive action and the German fleet did not again venture out of port and the war became a submarine war.
Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty were awarded £22685 for their part in the battle, by the Exeter MP Henry Duke who was a member of Asquith's cabinet and later became Lord Merrivale. He is buried in the Higher Cemetery near the chapel.
Hubert James Rooke, an Able Seaman aboard HMS Narwhal an M class destroyer, survived the Battle of Jutland only to lose his life the following January. He lived at 6 Trinity Street, Southernhay, Exeter with his wife Beatrice and was a painter by trade. He is buried in the WWI section of the Higher Cemetery.
The Battle of the Somme:
Captain George White c1887 – 1916
George White was the eldest son of Councillor John White and Mary White of 95 Paris Street, Exeter. He volunteered for the army early in WWI and gained promotion to Captain in the 1st Battalion of the South Staffordshire Regiment.
Captain White led his men in the British advance on 1st July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. After being wounded in the side he jumped up and shouted “Come on boys! I’ll lead you down” but was immediately killed by a shot to the head. He was one of 57,470 British casualties of the battle on that first day; that’s more than the total combined British casualties in the Crimean, Boer, and Korean wars.
George White is remembered at the Dantzig Alley British Cemetery, Mametz, and there is a memorial plaque attached to the White family grave in the Higher Cemetery. He left a widow and a baby son.
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