Aynho is known as the ‘Apricot Village’ and situated in the far south-western corner of Northamptonshire, on the border of Oxfordshire. Long ago, a family was taken from the village through no fault of their own, here is the story.

Henry Seccull came from a family of stonemasons in the village, he worked hard to feed his wife and eight children, but suddenly and without warning he died. His grieving widow Sarah was forced to apply for relief from the Parish, this was of little or no help at all, five of the younger children were forced into the workhouse, the older children managed to find work as domestic servants.

Three of the boys, Ernest, and twins Joseph and Prince Albert as soon as they could joined the military. Joe had been in the workhouse since he was two-years-old before being placed upon a training ship with a harsh regime, he had a tough life to say the least.

During the First World War Ernest and Joe lost their lives. Joe was 20-years old when he was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915, his battalion suffering a staggering 70% casualties, his body was never found. Ernie died just before the end of the war serving in British India.

The war memorial at Aynho is upon the village church of St. Michael’s, were the boys were baptised, they do NOT appear upon it. Simply because they were removed from the village as youngsters and became transient no consideration was given to include them because of a lack of information at the time.

We have put forward a case and request to the Parish for their inclusion. There is currently no Vicar in attendance at the church, so it is for the Parochial Church Council to decide or is it? Our communications with a senior member of this group have been somewhat fraught, we have been accused of ‘hounding’ the issue, even though the man refuses to speak to us by phone and incredibly our determination at first hand cannot be understood!

The boys are not commemorated at the church, they are sons of the village of Aynho - this is a FACT. Both of them were born and baptised in the village, there is nowhere else in the UK to commemorate them, they went from pillar to post. The PCC are still in ‘deliberation’ after several weeks over this matter and have not responded to our e-mail asking them for a simple answer – basically, ‘yes’ or ‘no’. How complicated is that?

The slow-paced communications continue as does the deliberation towards the day of ‘judgement’. The only positive is the communication, but it is being complicated and not by us. We are told that numerous people, with numerous opinions have to be consulted and that basically the final decision is out of our hands. Fine, we can accept that, we are the ‘outsiders’ let’s just hope for the sake of moral justice the right decision is made. Good job we were there in the first place though, or nothing would happen, nothing at all.