Great Eastern Railway War Memorial, Liverpool Street Station, Bishopsgate, City of London

Summary

Great Eastern Railway war memorial, unveiled in 1922.

Description

Great Eastern Railway war memorial, unveiled in June 1922 and relocated in the 1990s.

MATERIALS: marble and bronze.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial is affixed to the west face of the Great Eastern Hotel at the upper concourse level of the station, repositioned here in the 1990s as part of the station remodelling. It has eleven marble panels inlayed with metal lettering listing more than a thousand names. At either side are fluted Roman Doric columns with a spiralling carved wreath of bay leaves. The columns support a segmental broken pediment in the tympanum in which are richly and deeply-carved ribbons and foliage in high relief. Below this a tablet in the centre of the frieze records: ‘TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THOSE MEMBERS OF THE / GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY STAFF WHO, IN RESPONSE TO THE CALL OF THEIR / KING AND COUNTRY, SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES DURING THE GREAT WAR’. Below are attached additional tablets with bronze plaques featuring profile relief portraits of Captain Charles Fryatt and Field Marshall Sir Henry William Bart. That to the centre, signed Van Golberdinge, records: ‘TO THE MEMORY OF CAPTAIN CHARLES FRYATT / + JULY 27TH 1916 + / FROM THE NEUTRAL ADMIRERS OF HIS BRAVE / CONDUCT AND HEROIC DEATH / THE NETHERLANDS SECTION OF THE LEAGUE / OF NEUTRAL STATES JULY 27TH 1917’. The other, to the right, is ‘TO THE MEMORY OF / FIELD MARSHAL SIR HENRY WILSON BART / G.C.B. D.S.O. M.P. / WHOSE DEATH OCCURRED ON THURSDAY 22ND JUNE 1922 / WITHIN TWO HOURS OF HIS UNVEILING / THE ADJOINING MEMORIAL’. To the left of these smaller memorials a passenger lift has been integrated, with marble cladding to its doors to match the memorial.

History

The concept of commemorating war dead did not develop to any great extent until towards the end of the C19. Prior to then memorials were rare and were mainly dedicated to individual officers, or sometimes regiments. The first large-scale erection of war memorials dedicated to the ordinary soldier followed the Second Boer War of 1899-1902, which was the first major war following reforms to the British Army which led to regiments being recruited from local communities and with volunteer soldiers. However, it was the aftermath of the First World War that was the great age of memorial building, both as a result of the huge impact the loss of three quarters of a million British lives had on communities and the official policy of not repatriating the dead, which meant that the memorials provided the main focus of the grief felt at this great loss.

The Great Eastern Railway (GER) war memorial was unveiled on 22 June 1922 by Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson Bart to commemorate the many staff of the railway who died in the First World War. The ceremony was attended by the Bishop of Norwich, who dedicated the memorial. The memorial carries the names of over 1000 men from the GER, divided across three large tablets, making clear the devastating scale of the loss from the conflict. It was originally attached to the station booking office and was repositioned on the upper concourse level as part of the remodelling of the station between 1985 and 1992. There are two portrait relief tablets beneath the memorials to Captain Charles Fryatt and Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson Bart, designed respectively by Van Golberdinge and C L Hartwell. As the memorial records, Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson Bart was killed shortly after the unveiling of the memorial, assassinated outside his house at 36 Eaton Place as he returned from the ceremony by members of the Irish Republican Army.

Reasons for Listing

The Great Eastern Railway War Memorial at Liverpool Street Station is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the staff of the Great Eastern Railway Company, and the sacrifices they made in the First World War.

Architectural interest:

* as a major company war memorial of clear quality, carrying its original memorial inscriptions and integrating well-executed memorial busts of Captain Charles Fryatt and Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson Bart, designed respectively by Van Golberdinge and C L Hartwell.

Group value:

* with Liverpool Street Station, within which it is prominently positioned at upper concourse level, and with the former Great Eastern Hotel, to which it is attached.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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