A troop of starlings rummage in a patch of dog violets, battling for the best grubs. There’s a skirmish before some retreat to an ivy-shrouded crypt, while a robin flits between gravestones calling a bugle-esque song, declaring this territory won.
St Edmund and St Mary’s church sits in the centre of the rural village of Ingatestone. Tucked down the side of the churchyard is a first world war memorial. The obelisk itself is nothing unusual, but one name, tucked unassumingly into the roll call, sets it apart. Pte Archibald Browne, who lived locally, was 26 when he was tied to a post, blindfolded and shot, at 4.30am on 19 December 1914.
