Cedar
It is probably Cedrus libani, usually known as the Cedar of Lebanon, a tree often planted in Victorian and Edwardian times in churchyards. It symbolises strength and spirituality.
The foundation stone for the Crowthorne church of St John the Baptist was laid in 1872, and the church was consecrated in 1873.
The churchyard houses Commonwealth War Graves from both World Wars. Three brothers from the Boyde family are commemorated there, although all were buried abroad. Private Arthur Boyde, Royal Sussex Regiment, was twenty when he died in 1916 at the Somme. His brother, Corporal George Boyde, of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, died in 1917. Private Walter Boyde, from the same regiment, died in 1919, after the cessation of war, possibly from war injuries. One can only imagine what grief must have been visited upon the Boyde family.
In addition, a cross in the churchyard honours those who died and were buried without memorials.
The churchyard is a peaceful, well-kept ground, with headstones for tiny children, and others for those who lived a long and fruitful life. Fresh posies appear on graves from time to time, and not always for the most recently deceased.
