I had a busy day yesterday.

Firstly I had the great honour of laying a wreath on behalf of the Community Council at the local War Memorial.

Then in the afternoon it was off to Cellardyke (where we have not-quite-yet relatives) for the Quiet Citizen’s Walk round the town past the houses of the fallen from the Great War poutsid eof which present residents were standing before joining the procession.

The walk ended up at Cellardyke Town Hall where a short talk was given on Cellardyke’s war dead. Unlike in the rest of the country most fishing town’s servicemen enlisted – or were conscripted into in the navy, their boats converted to minesweeping and anti-submarine duties and many sunk as a consequence. So it was with Cellardyke.

Actor Clive Russell who loives in the town recited Ewart Alan Mackintosh’s poem In Memoriam.

Then, in what was a moving detail, a succession of townsfolk who had been allocated a dog-tag with the name one of the dead came on to the stage to give the name and surrender the dog-tag to a total of 62.

There followed another walk to the Cellardyke (Kilrenny) War Memorial for the laying of wreaths and a piper’s lament.

Is it just me being Scottish or is there something more universal about the fittingness of the sound of the bagpipes played in memoriam?

One hundred years ago today, only one week before the armistice which ened the Great War, perhaps the most resonant of that war’s poets, Wilfred Owen, was killed leading his troops across the Sambre–Oise Canal.

On my trip down to Oswestry for the Challenge Cup semi-final in February I discovered his name is on the Great War Memorial inside Shrewsbury Abbey.

The Abbey:-

The War Memorial. Owen’s name is marked by a poppy:-

Closer View:-

In the Abbey grounds there is a memorial dedicted to Owen. The text in red this side reads, “Wilfred Owen Poet 18/3/1893-4/11/1918.”:-

The memorial is titled “Symmetry” and was designed by Paul De Monchaux and erected in 1993:-

Three other information stones surround the memorial. Birth and life:-

Death:-

Line of Poem:-

The memorial is in the form of a pontoon bridge. You can read more about it here.

The red writing on this side is the quote (line 40 of “Strange Meeting“) “I am the enemy you killed my friend.”

I seem not to have posted this before even though I took the photogaphs in April 2012.

Stratford-upon-Avon has two civic war memorials, one for the Great War, moved to near the river from its original location, and another for the Second World War on a wall nearby.

Great War Memorial:-

World War 2 memorial:-

This web page shows the memorials’ relative dispositions.

On another nearby wall is King Edward’s School Boat Club War Memorial – for both wars:-

Between the Great War Memorial and the Second World War Memorial lies a memorial to an individual. I’m afraid I can no longer remember whom it commemorates and the writing is too indistinct to make out when magnified.

Blackpool War Memorial is a very tall obelisk situated near the sea fairly close to Blackpool Tower.

Blackpool War Memorial + Tower:-

Blackpool War Memorial. The names of the dead are displayed on the tops of two stone catafalques, one on either side of the memorial:-

Blackpool War Memorial west face. Figures and dedication, “In memory of our glorious dead 1914-1918 1939-1945”:-

South face. Frieze of figures and dedication, “Their name liveth forevermore”:-

East face. “In memory of our glorious dead 1914 – 1918 1939 – 1945” with below “Falkland Conflict 1982” and the name Foulkes F, M. N. (Merchant Navy):-

South face. Frieze of figures and inscription, “Lest we forget”:-

Blackpool War Memorial Ground Plaque, laid 2008. The main dedication is “to those who fought for freedom in all conflicts and those who remember them”:-

Like the Cenotaph in London (and the one in Manchester) Rochdale’s War Memorial was designed by Edwin Lutyens.

It lies opposite the Town Hall, but not facing it, with a memorial gardens behind.

Inscribed “1914-1919 and 1939-1945”. The carved wreath encloses the arms of Rochdale:-

The Stone of Remembrance faces the Town Hall and is inscribed, “Their name liveth for evermore.” The small bronze plaque reads, “To all those who died in the service of their country”:-

Strictly speaking the memorial is not a cenotaph (empty tomb) as it has a figure of a recumbent soldier wrapped in his greatcoat at its summit:-

Rochdale War Memorial Gardens which serve as Rochdale’s memorial to the Second World War:-

A Gallipoli Memorial lies between the Main War memorial and the Memorial Gardens:-

The Memorial Gardens, inscribed as a Memorial to the Rochdale members of the Lancashire Fusiliers :-

In front of and behind the Memorial – at right angles to the Town Hall – are two memorial benches:-

St Chad’s is Rochdale’s Parish Church and stands on a slight prominence above the town centre from which it is screened by trees.

This photo is a stitch to get the whole length in:-

The Church tower:-

Detail on tower roofline:-

A set of stocks – the old mediæval punishment apparatus – lies in St Chad’s churchyard.

As does a Great War Memorial Cross. Here’s the side view:-

The base on which the pillar stands is inscribed “In proud and loving memory of those who gave their lives in the Great War 1914-1919”:-

By the roadside on Garstang Road, Broughton-in-Amounderness, Lancashire, England.

The inscription reads, “On the tablets opposite are written the names of those from this parish who gave their lives in two great wars. Rest awhile and think on their sacrifice.”

I snatched this from the passenger window as we were passing. We were being driven by friends.

As I was unable to photograph it myself I found some photos of the main Broughton War Memorial on the internet. (Clicking on the small views brings them up on a larger scale above.)

Crook of Devon is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland.
Its War Memorial is a stone slab with carved decoration over a brick and sandstone foundation bearing the names of the war dead, which stands at the east end of the village.

Inscription. “1914 1918. In memory of those who fell.”

Names to left:-

Names to right:-

Buchlyvie is a village on the A 811 between Balloch, at the foot of Loch Lomond, and Stirling. Its War Memorial is at the eastern end of the main street in a small enclosed space.

Below the granite cross surmounting the memorial is a wreath enclosing the dates “1914 1919” and covering a sword crossed with a rifle.

Then the inscription, “In honoured memory of the men of Buchlyvie and District who fell in the war,” followed by 24 names.

Lower inscription, “Greater love hath no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Lower addition: “World War 1939 1945,” surrounds the two names David Duff and William Irvine.

This memorial stands above Princes Street Gardens, to the south side of Princes Street, Edinburgh, and was originally erected to commemorate the men of the Royal Scots Greys who died in the Boer War, 1899-1902.

Dedication plaques facing Princes Street. The top one is the commemmoration of the dead of the Boer War (the Second Boer War, aka the South African War.) The lower plaque is to the Scots Greys fallen of the Second World War.

There are further dedication plaques on the western and eastern faces of the monument. The upper plaque here names privates of the Royal Scots Greys who died in the Great War. The lower states, “This memorial was erected in 1906 in memory of the Royal Scots Greys who gave thier lives in South Africa during the Boer War 1899 -1902. Tablets were added after the First World War 1914 to 1918 and after the Second World War 1939 to 1945. In 1971 the Royal Scots Greys amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers and Greys.)”

Here the upper plaque names officers, NCOs and men who died in the Great War. The lower plaque commemorates the dead of conficts since 1945; in Korea, Northern Ireland and Iraq.