On this day in 1924 ..........

The war memorial, 2013

On this day just 91 years ago and a full decade after the outbreak of the Great War we unveiled our memorial to those who had particiapted in the War to End all Wars.

Now I am not one to lift other people’s research and so from the outset I want to make it clear that the story of our war memorial has been drawn entirely from an article by Margaret E Taylor which appeared in an edition of the Eltham Society’s newsletter.*

Even before the end of the Great War there was discussion on a possible war memorial but the general consensus was that this should wait till the conflict was over and so it was not till the December of 1918 that plans for a memorial were seriously canvassed.

A public meeting was held in the parish hall in March of the following year and the decision was taken to build a memorial with many favouring a market cross featuring the names of all those who had served as well as those who died.

The Remembrance service, 2015

After a degree of deliberation a design was chosen, agreed at another public meeting in the March of 1920 and was finally unveiled on November 9 1924.

And this is always the point where I defer to the original article and suggest if you want more you read the article in the newsletter.

Picture; the war memorial © Rod Allday, & © Stephen Craven, and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence amd the Remembrance Service November 2015 courtesy of Elaine Walters

* Margaret E Taylor, former Archivist at Eltham Church  (St John’s), The Eltham Society Newsletter No 198 November 2014, http://www.theelthamsociety.org.uk/