Hornchurch War Memorial

Summary

Hornchurch War Memorial, 1921, designed by Sir Charles Nicholson.

Reasons for Designation

Hornchurch War Memorial is listed 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 conflicts of the C20.

Architectural interest:

* the memorial was designed by the leading church architect, Sir Charles Nicholson, who was responsible for a number of distinguished war memorials;
* the elegant design consisting of a Latin cross supported by a head of cusped ogee niches on a tapered column, reflects the setting of the memorial by the lychgate to the medieval parish church.

Group value:

* with the Church of St Andrew (Grade I), and with the C18 Wykeham Cottage, standing a short distance to the west.

History

The war memorial was erected to commemorate the men of Hornchurch who were killed in the First World War, the total cost being £500, which was raised by public subscription. The names of 200 servicemen were recorded on the memorial. The war memorial was unveiled on 27 March 1921 by Maurice Towneley-O’Hagan, 3rd Baron O’Hagan, deputy lieutenant of Essex, who had been a major in the Essex Royal Horse Artillery during the war; the memorial was dedicated by the Suffragan Bishop of Colchester. It is understood that the lychgate leading to St Andrew’s Churchyard, Hornchurch, adjacent to which the memorial stands, was also erected shortly after the First World War. A number of those named on the memorial are buried in the churchyard; the war graves include those of four Maori soldiers from the South Pacific island of Niue who served in the First World War and died at the New Zealand Convalescent Hospital established at Hornchurch.

The memorial was designed in 1921 by the architect Sir Charles Nicholson FRIBA (1867-1949). Nicholson was born in 1867 in London and educated at Rugby School and New College Oxford. He trained as an architect in the office of JD Sedding, who fostered his skill and enthusiasm for church design. Subsequently he worked with Henry Wilson, another pupil of Sedding, and in 1893 set up his own practice; the RIBA awarded him the Tite prize in the same year. From 1895 to 1916 Nicholson worked in partnership with Major Hubert Christian Corlette. One of the leading church architects of his day, Nicholson built a large number of new parish churches – Gothic predominating in his work – as well as contributing additions and furnishing schemes to a greater number of existing churches; he undertook structural repairs to the Church of St Andrew, Hornchurch – in front of which this memorial stands – in 1918. In the course of his career he was appointed consulting architect to seven cathedrals, and was architect to four dioceses; in 1927 Nicholson was commissioned to transform the parish Church of St Thomas à Becket as the new Portsmouth Cathedral. Nicholson designed numerous war memorials including the memorial and war memorial chapel at Rugby, his own school, and the unusual ‘lanterne des morts’ memorial at Burwash, East Sussex.

The original bronze plaques bearing the inscription and names of the fallen were replaced by larger marble or granite panels at some time before 2009; these include panels recording the names of those lost during the Second World War. The inscription which filled the central, north-facing plaque is now inscribed on a smaller plaque on a north-facing step. The text is based on the King’s message written on the scrolls which accompanied the Next of Kin memorial plaques presented to the families of those who died serving with the British and Empire forces in the First World War; below is a Biblical quotation. The later plaque commemorating the Second World War includes an epitaph composed by John Maxwell Edmonds at the end of the First World War. All three are texts frequently found on war memorials. In 2017, as part of Havering Council’s First World War Centenary Project, names not originally included on the memorial were added, on separate panels, as a result of research undertaken by the Hornchurch British Legion and the Essex Commemorative Project.

Details

War memorial, 1921, designed by Sir Charles Nicholson; the memorial was erected by George Dockrill of Hornchurch.

MATERIALS: the memorial is constructed of Clipstone stone; the original bronze panels have been replaced with larger marble or granite panels, incised with the names of the fallen. The memorial stands in a grassed area to the north-west of the lychgate serving the churchyard of the medieval Church of St Andrew, Hornchurch.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial consists of a hexagonal plinth raised on a wide base of four steps with a tapering hexagonal shaft supporting a head of niches each with a cusped ogee top, the whole surmounted by a Latin cross. The memorial is set on a hexagonal paved area.

The replacement marble or granite panels surround the plinth on all but the southern face; the panels fill the faces more fully than did the original bronze plaques. Around the top step are plaques added in 2017, giving the names of those not originally commemorated on the memorial, including merchant seamen and civilians. On the north face of the step below are inscriptions relating to the First World War: "WORLD WAR 1 1914-1918 / “THESE AT THE CALL OF KING AND COUNTRY, LEFT ALL THAT WAS DEAR TO THEM, / ENDURED HARDNESS, FACED DANGER, AND FINALLY PASSED OUT OF THE SIGHT OF / MEN BY THE PATH OF DUTY AND SELF-SACRIFICE: GIVING UP THEIR OWN LIVES / THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE IN FREEDOM. LET THOSE WHO COME AFTER SEE THAT / THEIR/ NAMES ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.” / “THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US BY BOTH NIGHT AND BY DAY" 1 SAMUEL XXV.16.” On the step below that is an inscription relating to the Second World War: “WORLD WAR II 1939-1945 / WHEN YOU GO HOME TELL THEM OF US AND SAY / “FOR YOUR TOMORROW WE GAVE OUR TODAY”.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, O'Brien, C, The Buildings of England: London 5 East, (2005), 177

Websites
Imperial War Museum War Memorials Register: Hornchurch, accessed 25 February 2022 from https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/11999
War Memorials Online: entry for Hornchurch War Memorial, accessed 25 February 2022 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/208508
The Francis Frith Collection: photograph of St Andrew's Church and War Memorial circa 1950, accessed 25 February 2022 from https://www.francisfrith.com/uk/hornchurch/hornchurch-st-andrew-s-church-and-war-memorial-c1950_h115022
Romford Recorder article, 31 August 2015, accessed 25 February 2022 from https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/names-to-be-added-to-havering-war-memorials-3042592
Romford Recorder article, 5 August 2014, accessed 29 March 2022 from https://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/news/romford-pictures-havering-commemorates-100-years-since-britain-joined-the-3000594
London Gardens Trust Inventory: entry for St Andrew's Churchyard and The Dell, Hornchurch, accessed 29 March 2022 from https://londongardenstrust.org/conservation/inventory/site-record/?ID=HVG048&sitename=St+Andrew%27s+Churchyard+and+The+Dell

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