Goole Zeppelin Air Raid Memorial, Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire

Entry Name: Goole Zeppelin Air Raid Memorial

Listing Date: 6 August 2015

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1427535

ID on this website: 101427535

Location: Goole Cemetery, East Riding of Yorkshire, DN14

County: East Riding of Yorkshire

Civil Parish: Goole

Built-Up Area: Goole

Traditional County: Yorkshire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): East Riding of Yorkshire

Church of England Parish: Hook St Mary the Virgin

Church of England Diocese: Sheffield

Tagged with: Memorial

Summary

Free-standing war memorial, erected 1922, placed over the mass graves of sixteen individuals from Goole killed during a Zeppelin bombing raid 9 August 1915. White marble book with pages open and inscription in lead letters, set on stone podium, within a rectangular plan enclosure demarcated by Portland stone curbs.

Description

War memorial, erected 1922, built in white marble with Portland stone curbs and lectern, by local monumental mason Mr H O Tasker.
The Goole Zeppelin War Memorial is situated within the central circular plot at the focal point of Goole Cemetery and it faces north-west, directly towards the entrance gateway. The memorial is situated over the six public graves of the victims of the raid, which is demarcated by very low curb stones surrounding an area laid in slate chippings. The memorial consists of a white marble open book on a low Portland stone lectern, raised on a stepped stone plinth, placed at the head of the grave, situated within a rectangular enclosure laid in stone chippings and surrounded by low Portland stone curbs with corner and centre posts.
The pages of the memorial have an inscription in lead letters that reads - ‘IN MEMORIAM. IN MEMORY OF THE SIXTEEN CITIZENS OF GOOLE, WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN A GERMAN ZEPPELIN RAID ON THIS UNDEFENDED TOWN ON THE 9TH AUGUST, 1915. ETERNAL REST GIVEN UNTO THEM, O LORD.’
Then follows a list of the names and ages of the deceased – ‘SARAH ACASTER, AGED 65 YEARS. SARAH ANN ACASTER, AGED 34 YEARS. KEZIA ACASTER, AGED 32 YEARS. VIOLET STAINTON, AGED 18 YEARS. HANNAH GOODALL, AGED 74 YEARS. ALICE HARRISON, AGED 6 YEARS. FLORENCE HARRISON, AGED 4 YEARS. MARGARET SELINA PRATT, AGED 9 MONTHS. AGNES PRATT, AGED 36 YEARS. ALICE ELIZABETH WOODHALL, AGED 3 YEARS. GRACE WOODHALL, AGED 31 YEARS. MARY CARROLL, AGED 32 YEARS. JAMES CARROLL, AGED 26 YEARS. ALICE CARROLL, AGED 4 YEARS. GLADYS CARROLL, AGED 3 YEARS. ALICE SMITH, AGED 17 YEARS.
The upper riser of the plinth has an inscription that referred to the monument being paid for by public subscription but it has weathered and is now illegible.

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, 1 February 2017.

History

After the First World War, like many other grieving communities, the townspeople of Goole wished to raise a memorial to commemorate the fallen. The Goole War Memorial Committee was established to consider a variety of proposals on how best to commemorate the dead. Eventually a list of thirteen different proposals was drawn up and a vote was taken at a meeting on Friday 10 January 1919, making a recommendation to the General Committee that a memorial square, parks for the West and North Wards, a park for the South Ward, together with the erection of a war memorial, should be carried out. In addition they also recommended that a fund for soldier’s and sailor’s dependents should be established and that a subsidiary memorial should be erected by subscription to commemorate the sixteen air raid victims buried in Goole Cemetery. In actual fact seventeen people had been killed during the Zeppelin attack upon the town on 9 August 1915, however one was not a local man and was therefore not commemorated on the memorial. The Zeppelin Memorial was erected on a circular plot at the centre of Goole cemetery that had been used for the six public graves for the burial of the victims of the air raid. The construction was completed by January 1922, and the memorial was unveiled on the afternoon, of 12 February 1922, at an ecumenical memorial service conducted by Bishop G D Iliff, Reverend Father Dekkars, and Reverend J A Young. The attendance at the service was in excess of 5,000 people. The commencement of the Zeppelin air raids on civilian populations of Great Britain during the First World War marked the beginnings of what has become to be known as ‘Strategic Bombing’.

Reasons for Listing

Goole Zeppelin Air Raid Memorial, erected 1922, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historical interest: the Zeppelin air raids on civilian populations of Great Britain during the First World War marked the beginnings of what has come to be known as ‘Strategic Bombing'; this memorial provides an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on a local community and the sacrifice it made in the conflicts of the C20;
* Design interest: it is a dignified monument executed in good quality materials and, unlike the vast majority of war memorials commemorating events of the First World War, it acts as a headstone to the graves of the fallen named upon it;
*Rarity: as a rare free-standing monument erected to commemorate civilian casualties who were killed as a consequence of Zeppelin bombing raids during the First World War.

External Links

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