Fishponds War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial, 1921.

Reasons for Designation

Fishponds War Memorial, which stands in Fishponds Park, Bristol, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on this local community, and the sacrifice it has made in the First World War;
* Sculptural interest: a life-sized bronze soldier by the foundry of Messrs Humphrey and Oakes of Bristol;
* Group value: with the Church of St Mary (Grade II), Numbers 11, 13 and 15 and Attached Wall (Grade II*) and the Drinking Fountain in Fishponds Park (Grade II).

History

Fishponds War Memorial, commissioned in 1919, was designed and built by Messrs Humphrey and Oakes of Lawrence Hill in Bristol for the sum of £615. The statue was sculpted from life but there is no record of the name of the artist or the model. The memorial was officially unveiled on 19 March 1921 by Colonel D Burges OBE DL, the original commanding officer of the 12th Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, the locally-recruited Pals battalion known as 'Bristol's Own'. It commemorates 204 local servicemen who died in the First World War.

At the unveiling ceremony the Chairman of the War Memorial Committee, Mr HG Vassall, presented the memorial to the Lord Mayor, Mr GB Britton MP. Mayor Britton described the memorial as ‘a most pleasing, most unconventional, and original manifestation on the part of the residents in that part of the city’. Of the men named on the memorial he said, ‘we want to perpetuate their memory, and hand down to our children and our grandchildren the expression of what you and I thought about them’.

An additional plaque has been added to the west face of the memorial, commemorating Frederick Room VC (d1932).

Messrs Humphrey and Oakes were responsible for a number of war memorials, many of which are plaques, but which include the Grade II-listed churchyard cross at Holy Trinity Church, Abbots Leigh, and the ornamental screen in the Great Hall of the Grade II-listed Bristol Grammar School.

Details

The memorial stands in a small suburban park in the Fishponds area of Bristol. The park is to the east of the Grade II-listed Church of St Mary and the old school house (Numbers 11, 13 and 15 and Attached Wall, Grade II*-listed). The drinking fountain to the south-east of the memorial is Grade II-listed. Originally the memorial was enclosed by railings.

The memorial consists of three broad octagonal concrete steps, the first being c4m across, the second c3m, and the third c2m, surmounted by a rough-hewn, square on plan, granite plinth c2.3m high and c1m wide. The life-sized bronze sculpture of a soldier, his helmet raised in his left hand and carrying his rifle in his right hand, stands on the plinth. The rifle muzzle is missing the bayonet with which it was originally fitted. Below the sculpture, a bronze scroll bears the inscription 1914 – VICTORY – 1918.

A bronze panel containing the names of the fallen of the parish is mounted on each side of the granite plinth. The inscription on the front panel reads IN GLORIOUS MEMORY/ GLOUCESTERSHIRE REGIMENT/ (NAMES)/ “THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE”. The inscriptions on the remaining three plaques read IN GLORIOUS MEMORY/ (NAMES)/ “THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE”. Below the main plaque on the rear face of the plinth, a small bronze plaque reads FREDERICK G. ROOM V.C./ 2ND BN. THE ROYAL IRISH REGIMENT/ 1895 – 1932.

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, 15 December 2016.

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 15/12/2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/12960
War Memorials Online, accessed 15/12/2016 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/191669

Other
“Fishponds War Memorial”, Western Daily Press, 21 March 1921, p3

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