Published in Windlesora 35
© WLHG 2019
Following a suggestion by historian and author Derek Hunt, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has taken up his idea and named the roads in Windsor Cemetery. There are two Victoria Cross winners buried there and a memorial to a third. They are:
Francis Cornwallis Maude VC
1828 – 1900
Royal Artillery, awarded VC at Lucknow 1857.
Buried in Plot B.
Oliver Brooks VC
1889 – 1940
Coldstream Guards, awarded VC at Loos, France in 1915.
Buried in Plot GN
William Henry Dick-Cunyngham VC
1851 – 1900
Gordon Highlanders, awarded VC at Sherpur Pass, Afghanistan in 1879. He was killed in action at Ladysmith, South Africa in 1900 and buried there.
He is, however, commemorated on a family grave in Plot G.
There are five roads running east to west, three main roads and two smaller ones; the grave plots are laid in a lettered grid but it is not always easy to find the grave you are looking for. The RBWM have named the main roads after these three Victoria Cross recipients, and the two smaller ones are Victoria after the Queen, and Valour to reflect the wording on the VC. Erected in April 2019, the name signs are at each end of the roads and there is a display board giving details of the three men.
Carol Dixon-Smith
Notes
Images Derek Hunt
Editor’s Note: An article about Brooks was published in Windlesora 17.
Windsor Local History Group 