Sutton Courtenay War Memorial

Summary

War memorial, 1920, designed by Colonel HE Morgan Lindsay, and built by Henry Miller.

Reasons for Designation

Sutton Courtenay War Memorial, unveiled in 1920, 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 community, and the sacrifices it has made in the conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest:

* a robust, monolithic monument, simply detailed and designed to showcase the names and fates of the local men who fought in the first World War.

Group value:

* with a number of listed buildings, including the Grade I-listed Church of All Saints and the Norman Hall.

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. One such memorial was raised at Sutton Courtenay as a permanent testament to the sacrifice made by the members of the local community, who served in the First World War and later conflicts.  It commemorates 160 local servicemen who served during the First World War. Following the Second World War, a dedication was added to commemorate the fallen of that and later conflicts.

The decision to erect the war memorial was agreed upon at a parish meeting held after the signing of the Armistice in November 1918. A war memorial committee, including the local vicar and Colonel HE Lindsay, was formed, the latter coming up with the design for the war memorial. Mr Henry Cooper of Milton was appointed to erect the memorial, which was funded by public subscription, and it was unveiled on the 22 May 1920 by Lord HH Asquith, the former British Prime Minister. Asquith’s accompanying speech noted that the memorial was 'a permanent and speaking memento expressing the gratitude and honour of this generation, but at the same time offering a lesson and example to all the generations that are to come'. The ceremony was attended by a number of other notable people, including the Countess of Essex, and opened with the hymn ‘O God our help in ages past’. Asquith (1852-1928) is buried in the graveyard of the adjacent Church of All Saints.

The memorial had originally been enclosed by iron railings, the cost of which was defrayed by the chairman of the parish council, however these were supposedly removed during the Second World War as part of the War Effort. A stone bench had also originally sat around the base of the memorial which has since been removed and the original stone cross atop the obelisk was replaced in 2002 after the original was removed some 40 years before. In 2015 the memorial was conserved with the help of grant aid from War Memorials Trust.

Details

War memorial, 1920, designed by Colonel HE Morgan Lindsay, and built by Henry Cooper.

MATERIALS: box-ground Bath stone with a Forest of Dean stone cross.

PLAN: the memorial is square on plan and stands on a paved area on the Green to the west of the Church of All Saints.

DESCRIPTION: a tapering square obelisk surmounted by a cross, with moulded detailing. Each face of the shaft has an indented panel containing a commemorative inscription. That to the east states ‘IN COMMEMORATION / OF THE GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918 / THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES’ followed by the names and regiments of the 25 fallen soldiers. Beneath this are the names of six men missing in action; the last of these is amended to record his death in Mesopotamia. At the bottom, a dedication to the Second World War has been added: ‘AND IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED IN THE WAR OF / 1939 1945 / AND LATER CONFLICTS’.

The western face records the names of the men who ‘SERVED OVERSEAS’, and the south face records those who ‘SERVED AT HOME’. The north face records those ‘WOUNDED’.

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, 30 January 2018.

Sources

Websites
Sutton Courtenay, Imperial War Museums, accessed 17/08/2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/31825
War Memorials Online, accessed 30 January 2018 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/161668

Other
‘Winners of the War: Mr Asquith unveils a village memorial’, Nottingham Journal, 24 May 1920, p1

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