Canterbury Cemetery
Photographs and story via Findagrave and Bernard Chevalier
WATTIER Gaston 1e Jagers te Voet 23/11/1914
Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald
Saturday 28 November 1914
BELGIAN OFFICER'S FUNERAL AT CANTERBURY. With full military honours the remains of Lieutenant Gaston Wattier, of the Belgian army, who died from wounds in the Kent and Canterbury Hospital on Saturday, were on Wednesday afternoon interred in the Canterbury Cemetery. The deceased, aged 35, and belonging to Brussels, was formerly a sergeant in the 1st Chasseurs a pied, and received his well earned promotion to commissioned rank while in the field. He was in the fighting in the neighbourhood of Dixmude during the Last week of October, and it was here that he was wounded in the left side of the head from shrapnel. He was brought to England and admitted into the hospital at Ashford on October 27th. He was then found to be suffering from a septic wound which penetrated the vortex of the skull. An operation was performed on November 7th, and a piece of shrapnel removed from just inside skull at the site of the wound, together with several splinters of bone.
Two days later, unhappily, paralysis of the right side of the body developed, and as this gradually increased it was decided send him to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital to be X-rayed, and in order to save him the return journey from Canterbury to Ashford, arrangements were made for him to be nursed the Canterbury Hospital. He was transferred to Canterbury on November 12th and the X-rays revealed three further splinters of shrapnel in the skull. A further operation was performed on November 15th and these further splinters were removed, but in spite of this the paralysis continued to progress and he died on November 21st. While in the Hospital he was most carefully nursed, and he seemed very pleased at the knowledge that his commissioned rank would permit his wife to receive a pension. He had heard nothing as to the whereabouts of either his wife or his two little children.
The funeral cortege left the hospital about 2.30. It was headed by the band of the 8th King's Irish Liverpool Regiment, playing the Dead March from "Saul," and included a contingent of that regiment, under the command of Colonel O'Neill, late of the Bedfordshire Regiment, who recently returned from the Front and is going out again shortly. The coffin, draped with the Union Jack and the Belgian flag, was on a gun-carriage drawn by six horses mounted by Royal Horse Artillery, and several beautiful wreaths reposed on the coffin lid. The firing party, carrying their rifles reversed, consisted of 3rd and 6th Dragoon Guards and 5th Lancers. In the procession also were Mons. Le Louvaine, of Whitstable Road, Canterbury, Father Sheppard, in full canonicals, Belgian officers and men staying in Canterbury, numerous Belgian families, and nurses from the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. Some wounded Belgian soldiers unable to walk were conveyed in carriages. There was a very large assemblage of citizens and others in the cemetery, many Territorials being among the crowd, and the deeply impressive service visibly affected men and women alike.
Father Sheppard was the officiating priest, and after the body had been lowered into its last resting place Colonel O'Neill, standing at the head of the grave delivered an eloquent and touching address in French to the compatriots of the deceased officer. The firing party discharged three volleys over the grave, and the buglers of the Liverpool Regiment sounded the Last Post, which brought the very affecting ceremony to a fitting close. The wreaths included one from the Belgian officers in Canterbury and Lieutenant White, a wounded British officer; also one from the nursing staff. The South Eastern Mounted Brigade was represented at the funeral by an officer.
Two days later, unhappily, paralysis of the right side of the body developed, and as this gradually increased it was decided send him to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital to be X-rayed, and in order to save him the return journey from Canterbury to Ashford, arrangements were made for him to be nursed the Canterbury Hospital. He was transferred to Canterbury on November 12th and the X-rays revealed three further splinters of shrapnel in the skull. A further operation was performed on November 15th and these further splinters were removed, but in spite of this the paralysis continued to progress and he died on November 21st. While in the Hospital he was most carefully nursed, and he seemed very pleased at the knowledge that his commissioned rank would permit his wife to receive a pension. He had heard nothing as to the whereabouts of either his wife or his two little children.
The funeral cortege left the hospital about 2.30. It was headed by the band of the 8th King's Irish Liverpool Regiment, playing the Dead March from "Saul," and included a contingent of that regiment, under the command of Colonel O'Neill, late of the Bedfordshire Regiment, who recently returned from the Front and is going out again shortly. The coffin, draped with the Union Jack and the Belgian flag, was on a gun-carriage drawn by six horses mounted by Royal Horse Artillery, and several beautiful wreaths reposed on the coffin lid. The firing party, carrying their rifles reversed, consisted of 3rd and 6th Dragoon Guards and 5th Lancers. In the procession also were Mons. Le Louvaine, of Whitstable Road, Canterbury, Father Sheppard, in full canonicals, Belgian officers and men staying in Canterbury, numerous Belgian families, and nurses from the Kent and Canterbury Hospital. Some wounded Belgian soldiers unable to walk were conveyed in carriages. There was a very large assemblage of citizens and others in the cemetery, many Territorials being among the crowd, and the deeply impressive service visibly affected men and women alike.
Father Sheppard was the officiating priest, and after the body had been lowered into its last resting place Colonel O'Neill, standing at the head of the grave delivered an eloquent and touching address in French to the compatriots of the deceased officer. The firing party discharged three volleys over the grave, and the buglers of the Liverpool Regiment sounded the Last Post, which brought the very affecting ceremony to a fitting close. The wreaths included one from the Belgian officers in Canterbury and Lieutenant White, a wounded British officer; also one from the nursing staff. The South Eastern Mounted Brigade was represented at the funeral by an officer.