Dean Prior War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial, unveiled 1921.

Reasons for Designation

Dean Prior War Memorial, which stands in the churchyard of the Church of St George, 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 made in the First World War.
    
Architectural interest:

*     a simple yet poignant memorial cross in granite;
* unusually, the memorial has not been adapted for Second World War commemoration, and thus retains its original design intent.

Group value:

* with the Church of St George (Grade I), and adjacent Grade II-listed structures including the Old Parsonage and churchyard monuments.

History

The aftermath of the First World War saw the biggest single wave of public commemoration ever with tens of thousands of memorials erected across England. This was the result of both the huge impact on communities of the loss of three quarters of a million British lives, and also the official policy of not repatriating the dead which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.

One such memorial was raised at Dean Prior as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by the members of the local community who lost their lives in the First World War. Thirty-five men had served, of whom three (two soldiers and one sailor) had died. The memorial cross commemorating their names was unveiled on 23 January 1921 by Colonel Downing DSO. It had been designed by Mr H Read of Exeter.

Details

The c3m tall granite cross stands in the churchyard of the Church of St George (Grade I), immediately to the south of the lych gate and facing onto the A38. It comprises a Latin cross, octagonal in section, with slightly splayed cross arms. The cross rises from a shouldered pedestal, square on plan. The pedestal stands on a two-stepped octagonal base.

The principal dedicatory inscription is incised into the front face of the pedestal. Highly weathered at the time of writing (2017), this is reported as reading TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ AND HONOUR OF THOSE WHO WENT/ AND IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FELL/ IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 18. The three commemorated names are recorded on the base.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 22 November 2017.

Sources

Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 26 July 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/200726/
War Memorials Register, accessed 22 November 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/67340

Other
“Dean Prior Memorial”, Western Morning News, 26 January 1921, p4.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

Print the official list entry