Aiden receives ‘Peace’ rose from Monkton Elm

Aiden Wyatt from Taunton has recently received a ‘Peace’ rose from us to commemorate his Great, Great Grandfather who fought in World War One.

Heidi Wyatt, who is Aiden’s mum and an ex-serving RAF Air Traffic Control Assistant, said: “To mark the centenary of World War One the decision was made for the whole of North Town Primary School to concentrate on this as their topic for last term.

“One piece of homework for Aiden’s class was to research a soldier from Somerset who fought in WW1. We have quite a military history as I served as an RAF Air Traffic Control Assistant and my husband is currently serving in the RAF Police so the project was right up Aiden’s street. We spoke to my dad, Aiden’s Pop, who told us that his Grandfather, Sidney Arthur Axe, who is Aiden’s Great, Great Grandfather, was a soldier in the war so we concentrated on him.

“When we saw that Monkton Elm were offering a Peace Rose for the families of soldiers who have fought in wars we thought this would be lovely for Aiden to have as a memento, whilst looking after the rose he will always remember what Sidney went through for us.” 

We are currently displaying a list of names, sent in by applicants, on a special memorial page on our website.

Eight-year-old Aiden, who is in Year Four at North Town Primary School, said: “I have learnt so much about Sidney. As part of the project I had to put myself into Sidney’s shoes and wrote letters home and diary entries as if they were written by him.”

Sidney Arthur Axe was born in 1892 in East Chinnock near Yeovil. At the age of 22 he fought in World War One as part of the Field Gun Crew.

He was injured in the field by a direct hit from the enemies and was carried to safety by a friend.

Afterwards, Sidney returned home to East Chinnock and in 1916 he married Harriet Annie Osborne and they had five children. He had three grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. Aiden is one of nine great, great grandchildren. Sidney died of heart failure in 1968 aged 76.

Aiden’s application for one of our Peace roses was one of the most interesting that we came across. He really put a lot of research into the project and it was great to read all about his Great, Great Grandfather.