Luppitt War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial cross.

Reasons for Designation

Luppitt War Memorial, which stands on Church Hill, 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 granite memorial cross;
* 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 Mary (Grade I) and numerous Grade II-listed 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 Luppitt as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by the members of the local community who lost their lives in the First World War. In 1919, parishioners had decided to raise a cross in the churchyard to record the names of all who had served during the First World War, not only those who had died. In the event, the names of 10 servicemen who had lost their lives were recorded on the memorial cross. The memorial was refurbished in 2015.

Details

The granite memorial stands in a small enclosure about 22m to the east of the Church of St Mary (Grade I-listed), in close proximity to a number of churchyard monuments listed at Grade II. It takes the form of a tall Latin cross, square on plan and with slightly splayed cross arms, rising from a three-stepped, octagonal, base.

The principal dedicatory inscription, recorded on the front face of the cross and running down the cross shaft, reads TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ AND/ IN/ HONOURED/ MEMORY/ OF THE/ MEN OF/ LUPPITT/ WHO/ LAID DOWN/ THEIR LIVES/ IN THE/ GREAT WAR/ 1914 – 1918/ (NAMES)/ “GREATER LOVE/ HATH NO MAN/ THAN THIS/ THAT A MAN LAY/ DOWN HIS LIFE/ FOR HIS FRIENDS.”

The memorial is raised from street level on a square platform, and enclosed by a rubble stone retaining wall in the embanked area at the roadside.

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, 10 November 2017.

Sources

Websites
Dunkeswell Mission Community, accessed 4 August 2017 from http://www.dunkeswell.org.uk/st-marys-church-luppitt/
War Memorials Register, accessed 10 November 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/70616
War Memorials Online, accessed 10 November 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/253689

Other
“Luppitt”, Western Times, 20 June 1919, p9

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