Diss Family History Group

Having attended the Remembrance Service at North Lopham War Memorial in November 2020, I decided to walk down to St Nicholas Church and find a grave on which to place my poppy.

Walking through the headstones, I noticed a War Graves Commission memorial on a grave and went over to find out the details of the person buried there. The carved words showed this to be the final resting place of Guy Michael Mordaunt, Service no. 535363, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. I decided that I would try to find out more about this serviceman who had family in North Lopham.

Guy Michael Mordaunt was born on 2 March 1917 in St Albans. He had three siblings, one of whom was Richard John Mordaunt, and he was the son of Christopher John Mordaunt and Mary Patricia Mordaunt (nee Cautley) who lived at 9 The Limes, Poultry Farm.

I found this article in the Diss Echo of 28 December 1934, when Guy would have been 17 years old:

“Two accidents, fortunately not attended by serious consequences, occurred at Stowmarket on Sunday. During the morning at the junction of Tavern Street and Violet Hill a pedal cycle and a motor lorry were involved in a collision. The cyclist was Miss Bertha Greengrass of 1 Council Houses, Onehouse who was proceeding towards the town from the direction of Great Finborough and the lorry driven by Mr Guy Michael Mordaunt of Thelveton Manor, Thelveton, Diss was proceeding towards the CWS Creamery via Tavern Street. Miss Greengrass had a somewhat remarkable escape from serious injury. Happily, she was thrown clear of the lorry and sustained only a slight abrasion on her left knee and shock. The cycle however was extensively damaged.”

At this time Guy’s address is given as Thelveton Hall, which has been in the ownership of the Mann family who bought it in the 19th century. Thomas Mann was a partner in the brewing company, bought the Hall and his partner, the Paullins, other partners in the brewery bought the Manor House. They set about remodelling the park and village, and estate, providing workers cottages along the London Road and also a school. Thomas Mann has a memorial in the church. The Hall now belongs to a nephew, Mann. Sir Ralph is a resident of Billingford, and on inheriting the Hall it first lay unoccupied for several years, before being let. In 1997 the Norfolk Constabulary had to attend at the Hall to break up a group of squatters who had organised a rave there! Interesting times for a Hall which had been built in the Elizabethan times by the Havers family with money awarded to them for building dykes. The Havers were Roman Catholics and there was a small catholic chapel next to the Hall The floor of the chancel in Thelveton church is paved with memorials to the family and it is now covered with carpet.

Quite what role Guy Mordaunt had at Thelveton Hall is not known, but the fact that he was driving a lorry to the CWS depot, might indicate that he was involved with transporting dairy products from the Hall to the depot. There are no further reports of any misdemeanours, so it must be assumed that he kept out of trouble! In 1939, his parents, were resident at The Limes Poultry Farm in North Lopham. Researching his father’s lineage reveals that Christopher was born in December 1879 at Ashley House, St James, Taunton, and his father was Henry Mordaunt, a banker, who died in Bridgewater, Somerset in 1954. Christopher’s mother was Annie Cautlley from Thorney in Cambridgeshire. Was Christopher’s wife, Mary from the same family of Cautleys? There’s a Rev Cautley in Gt. Yarmouth at about this time, so there is probably some family connection.

Christopher’s grandfather was John Mordaunt, Esquire and JP for the County of Somerset - quite a responsibility in those days. Should we assume that Christpher was a landowner and poultry famer in North Lopham? Was it the Cautley family connection with the area that brought him to North Lopham?

I could not find out much about Guy’s service history with the RAF: his funeral service is recorded in the Diss Echo 9 February 1945.

“Lopham North with The late Sgt G M Mordaunt. The funeral took place last week of Sgt. Guy Michael Mordaunt. R.A.F., youngest son of Capt. C. T. and Mrs. Mordaunt, of The Limes, North Lopham, who died in hospital, aged 27. Sgt. Mordaunt was in the R.A.F. before the war and recently completed a year’s service in India. The Rector, the Rev J T Poole and the Rector of Quidenham officiated. Mrs T Stevens was at the organ. The many wreaths included one from an R.A.F. station.”

It seems he served in the ex - 1655 Mosquito Training Unit, and his command in the Second World war was Technical Training Command. Perhaps somebody with more experience of finding service records might have some luck with finding more details.

Guy’s death, in January 1945 took place in hospital in Bakewell in Derbyshire. He had an uncle in Bakewell, who was a pharmacist, so perhaps he had gone to recuperate there, which might have been considered a safer place in 1945 than Norfolk. On the day of his interment in North Lopham churchyard it was bitterly cold. We know that fact from the memorial record in the collision and loss of life of American Airforce men which took place over Lopham on that day. His parents moved away from Lopham after he was buried in the churchyard. The records show that his mother died in 1975 in Chichester. She was the second wife of Christopher John who had married Helen Charlotte Young in 1907 in Nottingham, and they had a son, Richard John, who was born in 1909 in Littlehampton. From the description of C. J. Mordaunt as being “Captain”, it could be assumed that his army service took him around the country. In the Census of 1911, he and Helen are listed as visiting the Palmans, Pine Grove, Upton Hill Camberley, Windlesham, Surrey. Mary Patricia Cautley, who would become Guy’s mother was in 1911 census at The Rectory, Belton, Great Yarmouth (born in Curragh County, Ireland) in June 1885), and also resident at the Rectory was her cousin, Richard Hutton Cautley, born 1846 in Nowgong Bundslund, India, a cleric in Holy Orders. Mary and Christopher had married at St Martin’s Church London in 1916.

We owe a debt of honour to all those who served in both World Wars, and I hope this will record my honour to Guy Michael Mordaunt whose family were residents of North Lopham.