Other | War dead | WW1

WW1 cross at St Botolph's

Erection date: 4/8/1916

Inscription

{On four alternating faces of the octagonal plinth, reading clockwise from the south face:}

In memoriam, officers and men of the Honourable Artillery Company who died in the Great War.
August 4, 1916.

In memory of our brave dead of Bishopsgate, 1914 – 1916.

John Travers Cornwell VC of HMS Chester, the Battle of Jutland, June 1916, hero of 16 years.

Kitchener, June 5, 1916, Lest we forget.

Unlike the majority of war memorials this was erected while the war continued. Hell-fire corner knows of a printed Order of Service in the HAC Archives entitled 'Second Anniversary of the Great War, August 4th, 1916. Unveiling of Memorial Cross to Lord Kitchener by the Lord Mayor of London in the presence of the Hon. Artillery Company. Address by the Lord Bishop of Stepney'.

Site: WW1 cross at St Botolph's (1 memorial)

EC2, Bishopsgate, St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate churchyard

London's first memorial to WW1. The HAC grounds and HQ are reasonably nearby just north of the Archer site.

We thank Jamie Davis for finding this link to the British Pathe news film of the unveiling.

The BBC page that reports the centenary re-dedication seems to think the inscription honours all 640+ men who were lost on the HMS Hampshire, not just Kitchener, even though the inscription does not even mention the ship.

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This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
WW1 cross at St Botolph's

Subjects commemorated i

World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came a...

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Honourable Artillery Company

London unit about which IanVisits writes "oldest surviving regiment in the Br...

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Lord Kitchener

Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, K.G. Born near Ballylongford, Count...

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Jack Cornwell, VC

Sailor. Born as John Travers Cornwell in Clyde Place, Leyton, he enlisted in ...

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