A U.S. Civil War solider had a headstone dedicated in his memory more than 100 years after his death.
Seth Watson Herrick enlisted in the Union Army when he was 27. He eventually became a major and served in the 2nd Maryland Eastern Shore Infantry for three years during the war. He later moved to the U.K., where he died.
Herrick was buried at Hendon Cemetery in north London in 1918 with no headstone. That changed Saturday.
The Veterans Affairs Administration in Washington, D.C. provided a gravestone to mark Herrick’s final resting place after British amateur historian Michael Hammerson determined where he was buried.
“I managed to get hold of a copy of Maj. Herrick’s pension file and it had a claim for the funeral that said where the burial was,” Hammerson told Stars and Stripes. “In most cases, it is nowhere that easy.”
Herrick’s great grandson, Robert Herrick, attended the dedication ceremony.
“It was a real honor to have my great-grandfather remembered in this way by this group of people,” said Herrick, who traveled from California.
Lt. Col. Jesse F. Moore, assistant army attaché from the U.S. Embassy in London and the mayor of the London borough of Barnet, Reuben Thompstone, were also in attendance.
Herrick said he knew his great-grandfather was buried in London but didn’t know where until he was contacted by Hammerson.
