Loppington - from the Great War to Iraq

Loppington is a village of about 600 people which a lies a few miles west of Wem in north Shropshire.

Loppington war memorial

A rusticated granite obelisk stands opposite the Dickin Arms and serves as the village’s First World War memorial.
Amongst those listed is Elsie Maddox, Munitions Worker who is buried not far away in the village churchyard. Elsie was the daughter of William and Annie Maddox of Church Cottage,
Loppington and the sister of William Maddox jnr, also listed on the memorial; she died on 24^th January 1918 at the age of 20. Local tradition has it that she was brought home, very ill, from the factory where she worked and conveyed from Wem railway station on a pony and trap, but died later at home. Following the tragedy of the Second World War, Loppington church was provided with a new organ in memory of men from the parish who had lost their lives. The story of Loppington’s war memorials however does not end there. In 2011 a badly damaged handwritten First World War Roll of Honour was discovered at the bottom of a chest in the church. 

St Michael & All Angels', Loppington

Though incapable of restoration, it prompted the making of a new Roll of Honour in the same year to commemorate the 90^th anniversary of the Royal British Legion. It hangs near the font and contains the names of all those it has subsequently been possible to trace who served and died in times of conflict, including Elsie Maddox and her brother. The Roll has been brought up to date with the inclusion of names from the Second War as well as that of Richard Sedgley, a Personal Protection Officer, who died in Iraq in 2006. Richard had only recently moved to Loppington, from Codsall near Wolverhampton. He worked for the Olive Group, a private security firm which provided protection for workers rebuilding facilities in war-torn Iraq and died almost immediately after suffering terrible injuries when shrapnel from an improvised roadside bomb ripped through his armoured vehicle. His inquest inevitably was an emotional affair with his parents, Michael and Hilary Sedgley, too upset to hear much of the evidence and a colleague, Richard Goodman from Tennessee – who gave his evidence personally – breaking down whilst reading his statement, unable to continue.