Dudley Boer War Memorial

Dudley Cemetery, Stourbridge Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 2DA

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Overview

Boer War Memorial, 1904. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1434997
Date first listed:: 16-May-2016
List Entry Name:: Dudley Boer War Memorial
Statutory Address:: Dudley Cemetery, Stourbridge Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 2DA

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1434997
Date first listed:: 16-May-2016
List Entry Name:: Dudley Boer War Memorial
Statutory Address 1:: Dudley Cemetery, Stourbridge Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 2DA

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:: Dudley Cemetery, Stourbridge Road, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 2DA

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

District:: Dudley (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SO9350789687

Summary

Boer War Memorial, 1904.

Reasons for Designation

Dudley Boer War Memorial, which stands in Dudley Cemetery, 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 Second Boer War; * Architectural interest: a substantial and elaborate war memorial incorporating Classical motifs.

History

Dudley Boer War Memorial was unveiled in the new cemetery on 23 September 1904 by Lieutenant General Sir Neville Gerald Lyttleton, Chief of the General Staff, in commemoration of 56 local men who died serving in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The memorial’s cost of c £300 was funded by public subscription and it was sculpted by Henry Owen Burgess (d1929), a local artist who studied at Dudley School of Art and was active between 1884 and 1924.

In 2013 the bronze rifle and stone hands of the standing soldier figure were broken off. These were reinstated in Portland stone as part of a project undertaken in 2015.

Details

MATERIALS: Marble figures, granite plinth, Portland stone.

DESCRIPTION: Dudley Boer War Memorial stands in a prominent position in the north side of Dudley cemetery, overlooking Stourbridge Road. It comprises a red and grey granite plinth, square on plan, with fluted black granite Ionic reeded pilasters to each corner. The memorial is 5.5m high with a three-stage base.

Rising from the plinth’s pediment is a red granite pedestal on which stands the sculpture of a soldier holding a rifle with its bayonet fixed, in defence of an injured bugler who lies at his feet (a popular Boer War memorial motif). The figures are carved from Sicilian marble, the rifle is in Portland stone. Around the pedestal is a raised inscription which reads from the front TRANSVAAL/ CAPE COLONY/ ORANGE FREE STATE/ NATAL.

Below this inscription the decorated pediment faces are carved with a design incorporating crossed rifles and the British Colonial pattern helmet. Immediately below the pediment are dentils and a frieze of garland swags, below which a further inscription reads from the front GREATER LOVE HATH NO/ MAN THAN THIS THAT/ A MAN LAY DOWN HIS/ LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS.

The red granite panel on the front face of the plinth is decorated with a carving of the Borough Arms, in low relief, below which the principal dedicatory inscription reads ERECTED/ BY/ PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION/ IN MEMORY/ OF/ SOLDIERS/ OF THIS BOROUGH/ WHO FELL IN THE/ SOUTH AFRICAN/ CAMPAIGN. The other faces of the plinth carry the lists of the 56 men of the borough who fell in the war. They include those who died of wounds or sickness as well as those killed in action.

Each face of the upper stage of the base bears the dates 1899 – 1902. On the middle stage of the base, a small wreath is carved in low relief on each face. The lowest stage of the base is moulded and rusticated. The base of the memorial is enclosed by a stone kerb with eight low moulded pillars.

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, 18 January 2017.

Sources

Books and journals
Noszlopy, GT, Waterhouse, F, Public Sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country, (2005)
Websites
Roll of Honour - Dudley Boer War, accessed 22/02/2016 from www.roll-of-honour.com/Worcestershire/DudleyBoerWar.html
University of Glasgow, Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, accessed 08/04/2016 from http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1223306277
War Memorials Online, accessed 18 January 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/149328
War Memorials Register, accessed 18 January 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/17448

Legal

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