Stratford-upon-Avon First World War Memorial

Summary

War memorial, unveiled in 1922.

Reasons for Designation

Stratford-upon-Avon’s First World War Memorial is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifice it made in the First World War;
* Architectural interest: as an example of the Cross of Sacrifice design by Sir Reginald Blomfield being used for a town war memorial;
* Degree of survival: apart from the removal of the bronze longsword, the memorial is intact;
* Group value: it has been relocated to the Garden of Remembrance where it has group value with the Second World War Memorial.

History

The great age of memorial building was in the aftermath of the First World War with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England. The war memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon was originally located on Bridge Street and was unveiled on 14 February 1922. By 1932 the memorial had been relocated to Bancroft Gardens next to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, and was finally moved to the Garden of Remembrance, which opened in 1954, and is co-located with the Second World War Memorial.

The war memorial takes the form of the Cross of Sacrifice, a design by the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield. Blomfield was one of the senior architects commissioned by the Imperial War Graves Commission (renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in 1960) and in 1918 he created the Cross of Sacrifice, which takes the form of an elongated Latin cross, whose shaft and cross arm are octagonal in shape, and is usually mounted on an octagonal base. A bronze longsword is fixed to the front, and often the back, of the cross. The Cross of Sacrifice was erected in war cemeteries that had more than 40 graves, and its design was intended to represent both the Christian faith of the majority of the men being commemorated and the military character of the cemetery. Its design was widely praised and has consequently been imitated in numerous war memorials, such as at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Details

War memorial, unveiled in 1922.

MATERIALS: constructed of limestone.

DESCRIPTION: relocated in the Garden of Remembrance, the war memorial takes the form of a Cross of Sacrifice; the bronze longsword to its front face has been removed. The octagonal cross is mounted on a three-stage octagonal pedestal, itself set on a three-step octagonal base. To the front of the top stage of the pedestal is a bronze plaque with the inscription:

IN / GRATEFUL / MEMORY OF / THE MEN OF / STRATFORD / UPON AVON / WHO LAID / DOWN THEIR / LIVES IN THE / GREAT WAR / 1914 1919 / BE WORTHY / OF THEIR SACRIFICE

The bronze plaques to the remaining seven sides of the pedestal list the names of the 235 men who died in the conflict. There is an additional bronze plaque to the second stage of the pedestal which is titled FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1920 and gives the names of 12 men and the date of their death.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 17 January 2017.

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 5 September 2016 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/38570
Stratford's War Memorial, accessed 5 September 2016 from http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/stratfords-war-memorial
War Memorials Online, accessed 17 January 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/85900

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