An interesting story ...... Christopher Tennant, a rediscovered commemorative plaque in the Church of Elverdinge. In November 2004 large new carpets were laid in the Church of Elverdinge. When on that occasion the pulpit was moved and the old carpets taken away, unexpectedly a brass commemorative plaque of 20 by 12 inches came to light, referring to a British officier who had fallen near the village of Langemark, 8 km (5 miles) east of Elverdinge, and who, as it would soon appear a few days later, was buried in a military cemetery 2 km from the village centre. The text on the brass plaque read : Orate pro anima CHRISTOPHER SEROCOLD TENNANT 2nd Lieut. Welsh Guards, of Cadoxton, Neath, Wales. Born 1897. Fell in action 3rd Sept. 1917 near Langemarck. Aged 19 Dearly loved Ex voto matre sua Sancta Teresia a Jesu Infante ora pro nobis There was no doubt - this discovery had to be kept visible. So it was decided to frame it in the carpet. And thus this piece of church history, and also of the Great War history, from then on can be admired again. Aurel Sercu, from Boezinge, the village between Elverdinge and Langemark, was informed about this discovery, and having a vivid interest in the history of the Great War, especially in this northern part of the Ypres Salient, immediately became intrigued by it. And by the person mentioned on the plaque. He tried to find out as much as he could about this young Welshman, and with the help of Steve Nulty, a British contact, managed to find the address of an English relative of this Christopher Tennant : the widow of his brother Alexander Tennant, who had died the year before, in 2003, at the age of 94. On Saturday 3 September 2005 (at 8 p.m.), 88 years after Christopher Tennant was killed in action (3 September 1917), Aurel Sercu led a Remembrance in the church of Elverdinge, and near Christopher Tennant's headstone at Canada Farm Cemetery, invited to do so by the Vrienden van het In Flanders Fields Museum (Friends of the In Flanders Fields Museum), a society that holds this kind of Remembrances a couple of times each year, on the day that a certain soldier fell, whom someone in the society, or another local researcher, has taken a special interest in for whatever reason. http://www.wo1.be/eng/mainnav.html
