Jelf family memorials, 1915-1960
/Close to the memorial window to Canon G. C. Jelf, DD, canon of Rochester Cathedral, are memorials to five members of his family, three sons and two grandsons, all of whom served this country either in the Colonial Civil Service or in the armed forces of the Crown.
The Dooner and Jelf tablets were dedicated by Dean Storrs on 13th October 1917.
Second Lieutenant Charles Gordon Jelf
Inscription reads:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND THE DEAR MEMORY OF
CHARLES GORDON JELF
SECOND LIEUTENANT THE BUFFS
YOUNGEST SON OF THE REV.G.C.JELF D.D.
KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE
13TH OCTOBER 1915 AGED 20
We look for new heavens and a new earth
Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
2/Lieut. Charles Gordon Jelf served with the 6th (Service) Battalion of the Buffs. This battalion was the first Buff Battalion to be raised from men who responded to Lord Kitchener's call to arms. He was commissioned as a temporary officer on 27th November 1914, and was killed less than a year later on 13th October 1915 in the attack on Hulluch (Loos on the Western Front) (vide memorial to 2/lieut.C.G.Jelf).
Lieutenant Christopher Blomfield Jelf, RN, RAF
Inscription reads:
To Commemorate Before God
CHRISTOPHER BIONTIELD JELF
Lieutenant Royal Navy and Flying Officer Royal Air Force
H.M.S. COURAGEOUS
Son of Sir ARTHUR SEIBORNE JELF C.M.G. and
BLANCHE his wife, and grandson of the Rev.Dr.JELF who at daybreak on the 22nd March 1937 whilst flying alone on duty over Home Waters passed in an instant from the sight of men, in the twnty fifth year of his age.
"MY SOUL FLEETH UNTO THE IORD BEFORE THE MORNING WATCH."
Sir Arthur Selbourne Jelf CMG
Inscription reads:
To Commemorate before God
SIR ARTHUR SELBORNE JELF C.M.G.
son of the Rev.Dr.Jelf
Born 10th October 1876 Died 20th February 1947
Colonial Civil Service 1899-1935
Colonial Secretary of Jamaica 1925 - 1935
REQUIESCAT IN PACE
Philip Wordsworth Montgomery Jelf
Lieut. Maxwell Chenevix Trench, a member of the Jelf family, was commissioned 2/Lieut. in the Royal Engineers on 15th February 1942.
He had been commissioned scarcely more than a year when he was killed in action in the North African campaign, during the advance against the German forces which began with the Battle of El Alamein.
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
