Roll of honour

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16th April 1915

A very fine day. Got to rest after the stand to at 4:30 a.m., and had brekker at 11:30 a.m. Got a lot of intermittent artillery fire in afternoon. Got relieved by Z Coy at 10:00 p.m. and marched to huts at Dickebusch, arriving at midnight.

Voormezele Enclosure 3

The village of Voormezeele in the Ypres Salient was immediately behind the British lines at St. Elooi before it finally fell to advancing German forces during the great Spring push of April 1918. The village was subsequently retaken by American troops of the 30th Division on 31 August 1918. The "Enclosures (at one time four in number, but now reduced to three) are immediately North-West of the village. They were originally regimental groups of graves, begun very early in the War and gradually increased until the village and the cemeteries were captured by the enemy (after very heavy fighting) on the 29th April, 1918. Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3, the largest of these burial grounds, was begun by the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in February, 1915. Their graves are in Plot III, the other Plots from I to IX are the work of other units, or pairs of units, and include a few graves of October, 1918. Plots X and XII are of a more general character. Plots XIII to XVI, were made after the Armistice by the concentration of isolated graves and smaller cemeteries, and at the same time the French graves (of April and September, 1918) were removed to a French cemetery. The concentrated graves cover the months from January, 1915 to October, 1918, and they include those of many men of the 15th Hants and other units who recaptured this ground early in September, 1918.

There are now over 1,500, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 600 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to twelve soldiers from the United Kingdom and three from Australia, known or believed to be buried among them. The Enclosure covers an area of 5,745 square metres and is enclosed by a brick wall. Burials (Commonwealth War Graves Commission) : United Kingdom : 1497 Canada : 100 Australia : 11 New Zealand : 2 South Africa : 1 Entirely Unidentified : 1 Total Commonwealth : 1612 Other Nationalities : 1

WW1 War Memorial, Birkenhead, Cheshire.

Location Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Cheshire.

The names of those of Birkenhead who fell as a result of the first world war are inscribe in two lists on the side panels. I understand that the main list names those who fell during the war itself. The second list names those who died later following war injuries such as mustard gas poisoning. Year of unveiling: 1925.

For The Fallen They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

The memorial 'consists of a simple rectangular cenotaph, flanked by flagstaffs and set upon a paved plateau' On the longer sides of the main body, 'above a strongly moulded base, are applied panels bearing the names of the Birkenhead men who fell in the war. On each of the shorter sides, a female mourning figure carved in relief is enclosed within an architectural frame. In one case the figure holds a replica of the Next of Kin Medallion, in another a wreath of immortelles and a palm branch. Surmounting both the names and the figures is a frieze being decorated with carved festoons of laurel. A band of Laurel leaves also encircles the base mouldings under the panels. Above each name panel are the inscriptions. 'Below the panels on each of these two fronts the four shields of the British Empire in the War, the Royal Navy, Army, Air Force and Merchant Service are represented by symbolic crests mounted in circular plaques. The Civic Arms of Birkenhead are embossed upon oval escutcheons above the figure panels and below the latter the dates 1914 - 1919 are incised. A sarcophagus form is given to the top on the cenotaph, which has capping of green Westmoreland Stone. The base of the whole is raised upon three broad steps that afford a place on which wreaths and floral tributes may be laid. Finally, two flagstaffs flanking the monument on the north-east and south-west sides respectively have been conceived as features complementary to central mass, the cast metal base of each rests on Portland Stone steps and is decorated with festoons of immortelles, the shafts are painted orange vermilion and the finials are guilded. A pendant bearing the Cross of St. George will be flown from each flagstaff'.

The cenotaph was a gift of subscribers to the town. Commemorated are local men who died in the "Great War". The erection of a war memorial was a typical feature of the so-called "roaring twenties". After the war, it seemed to be a necessity to focus the mourning on a mutual memorial. There was a War Memorial Executive Committee (Chairman: Councillor Mrs. Mary Mercer, J.P.; Town Clerk: Mr. E.W. Tame; Treasurer: Mr. Thomas Sumner; Secretary: Miss B.M. Truman; and twenty-two further members). In his competition report, Budden describes his ideas of the piece (these were reprinted in The Builder): 'It is felt that under existing conditions the ideal position for a war memorial in Hamilton square would be on the side of the square, immediately facing the Town Hall. The design would fit this latter position as well as the one for which it has been specifically prepared, and for that reason it has been alternatively indicated by dotted lines on the block plan opposite the Town Hall. Its erection in such a position would involve the moving of the Laird statue, which might either be placed to the right or left of its present station or be transferred to the site already prospectively allocated to the war memorial. 'A rectangular mass with battered sides is raised upon a heavily moulded base and crowned by a sarcophagus top. To his mass there are applied on the north-east and south-west sides respectively three panels, which are surmounted by laurel extended, are incised the names of the fallen. Experimental tests have been carried out with names of the size and in the position shown and they have been found to be easily legible, at a distance of 15 ft. and 8 ft. above the eye level. Above the panels, on the north-west side of the main mass itself there is the inscription. Below the panels on each of the two fronts are the four shields of the empire in War - the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Merchant Service - each represented by official crests mounted on the shields. 'On its south-east and north-west sides the main mass of the monument is marked by two mourning figures carved in relief, above which the civic arms of Birkenhead are embossed upon oval escutcheons, and below which the date 1914-1918 are incised. As the occasion has appeared emphatically not to be one for the employment of flamboyant and restless sculpture and as moreover, the conditions particularly require that statuary, should be reduced to a minimum, these figures alone are introduced into the design and are intended to be given a restrained and dignified treatment. The total estimated cost of the memorial, including layout of site and drainage, is £3,932.'(2) The unveiling of the Cenotaph in Birkenhead has been watched by a crowd of some 20,000 people. The ceremony was "full of pathos and sad reflection", as it is described in the Birkenhead News, "one's more sorrowful thoughts were not left without a bright tinge of hope." The memorial was seen as "a symbolic monument, touching in its simplicity, beautiful in form, and yet, with a quiet dignity of its own."