War Memorial

War Memorial, Junction of the High Street and Market Street, Lewes

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Memorial sculpture by Vernon March. Unveiled in 1922. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1191738
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1985
List Entry Name:: War Memorial
Statutory Address:: War Memorial, Junction of the High Street and Market Street, Lewes

User submitted image — Uploaded by Conor Sandford This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2005-06-01
Reference:: IOE01/14362/21
Rights:: © Miss Claire Pearce. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1191738
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1985
Date of most recent amendment:: 27-Oct-2014
List Entry Name:: War Memorial
Statutory Address 1:: War Memorial, Junction of the High Street and Market Street, Lewes

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: War Memorial, Junction of the High Street and Market Street, Lewes

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: East Sussex
District:: Lewes (District Authority)
Parish:: Lewes
National Park:: SOUTH DOWNS
National Grid Reference:: TQ4159610140

Summary

Memorial sculpture by Vernon March. Unveiled in 1922.

Reasons for Designation

Lewes war memorial, High Street, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impacts of world events on this community, and the sacrifices it made in the conflicts of the C20; * Sculptural interest: by Vernon March, a sculptor of considerable renown notable for the vigour of his figures, whose premature death makes his war memorials his main legacy. That in Lewes is the finest of his memorials in England. The tight composition and verticality of its design are particularly well suited to its constricted site.

History

Over 250 men from Lewes died in the First World War. Designs for the town's war memorial were requested by 1 August 1919, and Vernon March’s was chosen by the local committee on 19 September. It was unveiled on 6 September 1922 by General Sir Henry Crichton Slater, a local landowner who had been the General Officer Commander-in-Chief Southern Command in 1916-19, and dedicated by the Bishop of Lewes. The cost was not paid in full until 1924, to the embarrassment of the town. The quotation from Churchill was added in 1950, but it was not until 1 March 1981 that the monument was rededicated after the addition of the names of those killed in the Second World War.

Vernon March (1891-1930) was born in Hull, the youngest of nine children of an oil-milling foreman. Untutored, he became the youngest exhibitor at the Royal Academy in 1907, at the age of 16. He lived and shared a studio in Farnborough, Kent, with his sculptor brother, Sydney, and sister Elsie. Having learnt to fly before the war, he joined the RFC, but his poor eyesight prevented him from serving as a pilot. He exhibited at the 1919 exhibition of memorial designs at the Victoria and Albert Museum. His greatest achievement is the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa, completed after his premature death by his brother Sydney. The memorial in Lewes is on a par with that, and with one in Londonderry.

Details

MATERIALS: Portland stone pedestal, bronze statuary

DESCRIPTION: memorial and sculpture, signed Vernon March Sc. The memorial is surmounted by a winged bronze statue of Victory, facing east towards Flanders and holding aloft a laurel wreath. She stands on a globe, set atop a truncated stone obelisk inscribed LIBERTY with channeled bed-joints and a moulded cap. The plinth is cruciform with quadrants of steps between the piers. On the west face is a seated bronze figure of Liberty holding a torch. On the east face is a similar figure of Peace with a dove on her left shoulder and her right arm holding a wreathed bronze shield on the south-east angle inscribed IN MEMORY OF / THE MEN OF LEWES / WHO DIED / FOR THEIR COUNTRY / AND FOR MANKIND / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914 1918. The other diagonals have matching shields with 251 names of the fallen. 'THIS WAS THEIR FINEST HOUR' (Winston Churchill) was later added to the obelisk and LIKEWISE / REMEMBER / THOSE OF / THIS TOWN / WHO GAVE / THEIR LIVES / IN THE WAR / 1939-1945, and plaques with 126 names of those killed in the Second World War are affixed o the north and south faces.

The memorial is prominently sited at the junction of Market Street with the High Street.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 1 December 2016.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 293233
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Archer, G, The Glorious Dead: Figurative Sculpture of British First World War Memorials, (2009), 214-218
Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 01/12/2016 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/120512
War Memorials Register, accessed 01/12/2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/2045

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.