Obituary
Courtesy of Trevor Bavage.
Published in Alton, Hampshire February 15th. 1913
In Memoriam of Anthony Bavage, a Hampshire labourer of the soil. In these days of sloth and luxury, it is interesting to put on record what can be done by individual effort and pluck, although crippled. The case of Anthony Bavage, aged 68, who died last week at Farringdon, a village close to Alton, and was born there and his relatives before him, is a good example.
About 20 years ago he sustained severe damage to both legs, one of which was amputated by Dr. Briscoe of the Alton Cottage Hospital, and the other terribly broken, was dealt with at Guy's Hospital under the care of Mr. Arbuthnot Lane, the well-known London Surgeon.
Being a very steady man and enjoying the privileges of fresh air, simple diet and the peace of a poor yet happy home, he has, with one leg and a crutch of wood, most successfully brought up 6 healthy sons and two healthy girls who are all doing well.
Assisted by his devoted wife, who pre-deceased him 8 years ago, this man, with a happy, contented, God-fearing family, lived happily together in a neat, snug, village cottage. Week in, from morn till night, he represented the true type of agricultural labourer, so familiar to those words of Longfellow in the "Song of the Village Blacksmith". His wage never exceeded £1 per week, (more often less), just showing how comfort and happiness do not depend on means. There is a romance in such people's lives from which many might take a lesson, whether high or low in the scale of society, and the country and our colonies have been built up by similar men. Moreover, the mixed education of today was not their need. reading, writing and arithmetic sufficed for their purpose of life.
Again the genealogical table of this type of Englishman has invariably an ancestral history, as in this particular case.
Anthony Bavage came of good stock, tracing himself back to a period getting on for 3 centuries with an unbroken link. It was healthy stock, mentally and physically considered; no doubt the outcome of the simple life. And if we are to improve the stock of this Empire, it is to the good strain that we are to look for the healthy artisan.
With funereal respect our honest agricultural labourer was carried to his grave, alongside his wife, followed by the villagers and his sorrowing children and relatives, but not the least by those in the higher spheres of life who regarded him as a reliable person. It was a simple burial, with the old men clad in smock-frocks. Mr. Kennedy, the Squire of the village, went early to the cottage and sat among the family while Mr. & Mrs. Aylward followed to join the doctor in all the sympathy of the function.
Meandering to the church, the hundred or more followers were received at the Lynch Gate by the Vicar, (the Rev. T. H. Massey), who impressively took charge of the mortal remains of this honourable man. And before closing our Obituary Notice, it is a remarkable fact that, although the first accident did not end fatally to Anthony Bavage, the second accident, 3 years ago, in which his chest was crushed, seems to have been the cause of his death. had this not occurred, he might have been alive now.
As he and his wife were opposed to poor people sending wreaths to burials, as it incurred expense, these were forbidden at the funeral. In the stead however, his village friends subscribed towards brass memorial tablets which were affixed to the elm coffin, under the management of Mr. Clinker of Chawton, the next village. One was paid for by Mr. Aylward, another by Messrs. Grainger, Pike and Warner, (clerks in the office), and the third by fellow farm employees.
Finally, as a member of the Foresters Club, a regard was shown him like as to a King, by a record, in photography, of the last journey to the grave, and still more is the life of such a worthy labourer of the soil worthy of notice in our columns inasmuch as he lost one leg, yet rode a horse daily with one stirrup to and from his work occurred.