Bath: Church of St Michael (Somerset)
Memorial Quarter Peal rung for Private Albert Edwin Seers (Service no. 19409), 6th Bn, Dorsetshire Regiment; died 12 October 1918, aged 32; buried in Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, France (XIII. D. 22.); Son of Mr. and Mrs. W H. Seers, of Bath; husband of Emilie Seers, of 23, Magdalen Avenue, Holloway, Bath:
www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/244619/SEERS,%20ALBER...
Alfred Seers was a member of the band at St Michael's. The performance record says that Pte Seers had been wounded in the German advance of March 1918 and that he composed the date touch rung here while he was recovering in hospital.
Bath, Som (St Michael). 21 October 1918, 1918 Grandsire Triples: Albert F Alexander 1, Thomas Hogsflesh 2, Frederick C Rich 3, Charles Goodenough 4, Charles W Bell 6, Richard J Cousins (C) 7, William J Prescott 8.
Occasional reports of change ringing in the Bath Chronicle demonstrate that A. E. Seers was heavily involved in Bath ringing in the pre-war period. His father, W. E. Seers was also a bell ringer, described in 1914 as instrumental in getting St Matthew's, Widcombe affiliated to the Association (Bath Chronicle, 31 January 1914, p. 9). Albert called his first 720 Bob Minor at St. Mark's, Widcombe in 1907 with J. H. Odey (another First World War casualty) ringing the Treble. Seers featured in various Bath ringing performances, including a "farewell peal" of Grandsire Triples rung at Colerne in 1916 by eight ringers, "all of whom have attested as married men under Lord Derby's Scheme." He also rang in Bath when on leave, including a quarter peal shortly before his death.
Bath Chronicle, Saturday, 14 September 1918, p. 16:
"A special peal at St. Saviours.
At the Church of St. Saviour on Sunday morning a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, 1,260 changes, was rung in honour of the re-opening of the Men's Afternoon Services, in 41 minutes, by the following members of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers: Treble, Henry W. Brown; 2nd. Thomas Hogsflesh; 3rd, Horace Taylor; 4th, Albert E. Alexander; 5th, Albert Seers; 6th, Richard J. Cousins; 7th, Charles W. Bell; tenor, Herbert E. Holder; conducted by H. E. Holder. The ringer of the 5th is a Bath ringer home on leave from the trenches."
Oddly enough, five years before, Albert Seers and another Bath ringer (W. J. Prescott) happened to ring a peal at St Margaret's, Westminster at the wedding of Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier. This was reported in the Bath Chronicle of Thursday, 17 September 1908, p. 7:
"CHANGE RINGING.-- At St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, on Saturday evening in honour of the wedding of Mr. Winston Churchill and Miss Clementine Hozier, a peal of Stedman Caters, consisting of 5,003 changes, was rung in three hours twenty-eight minutes by the following members of the Middlesex County Association and London Diocesan Guild:-- Treble, H. Flanders; 2nd, J. J. Lamb; 3rd, F. G. Perrin; 4th, J. Cheeseman (conductor); 5th, A. E. Seers; 6th, W. J. Prescott; 7th, A. W. Coles; 8th, J. E. Davis; 9th, W. Pickworth; tenor, A. N. Hardy. The first peal on ten bells was by A. E. Seers, who, with W. J. Prescott are both members of the St. Mary's Company, Bathwick, Bath."
In 1950 (Bath Chronicle, 22 July 1950, p. 1), W. J. Prescott (by then Tower Master of Bath Abbey) explained that: "A party of us [Bath ringers] were going on a ringers' outing to London. We wrote to the secretary of the Diocesan Guild of Ringers and asked to ring at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, where Mr. Churchill was to be married," [...] We all thought it a great honour, of course, but I think much more of it now."
Bath: Church of St Michael (Somerset)
Memorial Quarter Peal rung for Private Albert Edwin Seers (Service no. 19409), 6th Bn, Dorsetshire Regiment; died 12 October 1918, aged 32; buried in Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, France (XIII. D. 22.); Son of Mr. and Mrs. W H. Seers, of Bath; husband of Emilie Seers, of 23, Magdalen Avenue, Holloway, Bath:
www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/244619/SEERS,%20ALBER...
Alfred Seers was a member of the band at St Michael's. The performance record says that Pte Seers had been wounded in the German advance of March 1918 and that he composed the date touch rung here while he was recovering in hospital.
Bath, Som (St Michael). 21 October 1918, 1918 Grandsire Triples: Albert F Alexander 1, Thomas Hogsflesh 2, Frederick C Rich 3, Charles Goodenough 4, Charles W Bell 6, Richard J Cousins (C) 7, William J Prescott 8.
Occasional reports of change ringing in the Bath Chronicle demonstrate that A. E. Seers was heavily involved in Bath ringing in the pre-war period. His father, W. E. Seers was also a bell ringer, described in 1914 as instrumental in getting St Matthew's, Widcombe affiliated to the Association (Bath Chronicle, 31 January 1914, p. 9). Albert called his first 720 Bob Minor at St. Mark's, Widcombe in 1907 with J. H. Odey (another First World War casualty) ringing the Treble. Seers featured in various Bath ringing performances, including a "farewell peal" of Grandsire Triples rung at Colerne in 1916 by eight ringers, "all of whom have attested as married men under Lord Derby's Scheme." He also rang in Bath when on leave, including a quarter peal shortly before his death.
Bath Chronicle, Saturday, 14 September 1918, p. 16:
"A special peal at St. Saviours.
At the Church of St. Saviour on Sunday morning a quarter peal of Grandsire Triples, 1,260 changes, was rung in honour of the re-opening of the Men's Afternoon Services, in 41 minutes, by the following members of the Bath and Wells Diocesan Association of Change Ringers: Treble, Henry W. Brown; 2nd. Thomas Hogsflesh; 3rd, Horace Taylor; 4th, Albert E. Alexander; 5th, Albert Seers; 6th, Richard J. Cousins; 7th, Charles W. Bell; tenor, Herbert E. Holder; conducted by H. E. Holder. The ringer of the 5th is a Bath ringer home on leave from the trenches."
Oddly enough, five years before, Albert Seers and another Bath ringer (W. J. Prescott) happened to ring a peal at St Margaret's, Westminster at the wedding of Winston Churchill and Clementine Hozier. This was reported in the Bath Chronicle of Thursday, 17 September 1908, p. 7:
"CHANGE RINGING.-- At St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, on Saturday evening in honour of the wedding of Mr. Winston Churchill and Miss Clementine Hozier, a peal of Stedman Caters, consisting of 5,003 changes, was rung in three hours twenty-eight minutes by the following members of the Middlesex County Association and London Diocesan Guild:-- Treble, H. Flanders; 2nd, J. J. Lamb; 3rd, F. G. Perrin; 4th, J. Cheeseman (conductor); 5th, A. E. Seers; 6th, W. J. Prescott; 7th, A. W. Coles; 8th, J. E. Davis; 9th, W. Pickworth; tenor, A. N. Hardy. The first peal on ten bells was by A. E. Seers, who, with W. J. Prescott are both members of the St. Mary's Company, Bathwick, Bath."
In 1950 (Bath Chronicle, 22 July 1950, p. 1), W. J. Prescott (by then Tower Master of Bath Abbey) explained that: "A party of us [Bath ringers] were going on a ringers' outing to London. We wrote to the secretary of the Diocesan Guild of Ringers and asked to ring at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, where Mr. Churchill was to be married," [...] We all thought it a great honour, of course, but I think much more of it now."