Fordham War Memorial

Summary

First World War memorial, 1921, by Sir Edwin Lutyens with later additions for the Second World War.

Reasons for Designation

Fordham War Memorial is listed at Grade II for the following principle reasons: * Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impacts of world events on this community, and the sacrifices it made in the First World War; * Architect: by the nationally renowned architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869-1944), who designed extant 58 memorials at home and abroad including the Cenotaph in Whitehall; * Design: a rare Doric column memorial by Lutyens; * Group value: with the Grade II-listed 1 Carter Street.

History

At Fordham, a war memorial committee was formed in June 1919 and originally proposed to erect a portico with mural tablets at the entrance to the local cemetery. However, Mrs Dunn-Gardner of Fordham Abbey donated five acres of land in the middle of the village for the combined purpose of a recreation ground and a setting for the war memorial. Lutyens was commissioned and designed a column surmounted by a bronze statue of St George by Sir George Frampton RA. It is similar to the Lutyens/Frampton war memorial in Hove.

The memorial was built by Frank Johnson, a local builder and stone mason and was unveiled by Mrs Dunn-Gardner on 7 August 1921. In June 1991 the memorial was demolished by vandals and the statue stolen. £4,750 was raised for a replacement statue of St George, moulded in fibreglass by Robert Donaldson, an artist from Yaxley, near Peterborough.

Sir Edwin Lutyens OM RA (1869-1944) was the leading English architect of his generation. Before the First World War his reputation rested on his country houses and his work at New Delhi, but during and after the war he became the pre-eminent architect for war memorials in England, France and the British Empire. While the Cenotaph in Whitehall (London) had the most influence on other war memorials, the Thiepval Arch was the most influential on other forms of architecture. He designed the Stone of Remembrance which was placed in all Imperial War Graves Commission cemeteries and in some cemeteries in England, including some with which he was not otherwise associated.

Details

The memorial comprises a Doric column of Portland stone, originally surmounted by a bronze statue of St George by Sir George Frampton RA and since the 1990s by a fibreglass replacement by Robert Donaldson. The column rises from a two-stage square plinth, itself set on a two-stage square base. Overall, the memorial is 6m tall. Inscriptions on the upper stage of the plinth read:

(South): OUR/ GLORIOUS/ DEAD (West): MCMXIV (East): MCMXIX

The names of the fallen of both wars are inscribed on all four sides of the lower plinth.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 26/10/2015

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, 13 January 2017.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

49021

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Skelton, T, Gliddon, G, Lutyens and the Great War, (2008), 78, 81, 83, 148, 159, 168
Websites
War Memorials Online, accessed 13 January 2017 from https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/121223
War Memorials Register, accessed 13 January 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/1290

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