SILKSWORTH AND TUNSTALL

In The Great War

 

The War Memorial today in Silksworth Welfare Park

 

Memorials

 

St Matthews Memorial Tablet

 

THE WAR MEMORIALS

By Douglas .W. Smith

A year after the Great War, a Silksworth War Memorial Committee was formed to erect a suitable memorial to the 125 men of Silksworth and Tunstall who had died on the battlefields. At a meeting in the Miners' Hall as early as January, 1919, Ald. Palmer informed the committee that Lord Londonderry had granted a site on the vacant ground to the west of the Drill Hall. They resolved to erect an obelisk of granite and to request the Marquis if a whole square of ground might be had so that it could be fenced. Not until 1922 was a design selected from those submitted - a six foot high soldier with rifle and bayonet in white marble. The base was to be of Heworth stone and the pedestal of polished granite. The designer was S. Fraser, of Ryhope Rd., Grangetown. Furthermore, it was decided to erect this upon Tunstall Green, enclosed with artistic railings.

The monument was expected to be ready by October 1922 and by the following month, the ceremony of unveiling took place. November 25th proved to be a day of piercing cold wind and the presence of thousands, many of them in mourning, added to the solemnity. Following the Colliery Silver Prize Band, buglers and firing party from the 7th D.L.I, the Committee, detachment of police, ex-servicemen, widows and children were joined by representatives of various churches and lodges. The clergy officiating (Revs. Atkinson, A. Parkin and W. Hardwick) dedicated the memorial after a male voice choir, two minutes silence and the Last Post. Major Common in his address spoke not only of the great sacrifice of the men who "turned from the pleasant ways of life, family affections and domestic joys, and went out against the foe", but also of the no less a sacrifice made by those left behind - "the mothers, wives and sweethearts who let their beloved go, who watched and waited with aching hearts through all the dreary years for the final blow. Theirs was the greater sacrifice; their menfolk died but they lived on."

 

An inscription quoted a line of Tennyson's Ode on the Death of Wellington:

"Not once or twice in our rough island's story. The path to duty was the way to glory."

 

After the Second World War, it was decided to move the whole to a more central site and the Welfare Ground was chosen. A further 64 names needed to be added, including those who died as a result of enemy bombing. Apart from losing two bayonets due to vandalism, this statue, regarded by many as one of the best life-sized models of a 1914-18 British infantryman, has stood in silent testimony to the sacrifices made by Silksworth men and women in war.

Apart from the public War Memorial, a proposal was also made to erect a Tablet or Screen in the parish church. Mr. Beamson and Mr. Forster set out this proposal in December, 1921 and it was voted upon. Another idea to erect a cross in the churchyard, was defeated. All the names of the Fallen were to be included, unless anyone objected. At a meeting the following December, it was thought necessary to confine the list of names to those who had been members of the church, with an advert being placed in the newspapers to allow anyone else desirous of having a name included. An architect was commissioned to draw a sketch of crucifix and screen (at a cost of £282.10) and a Tablet (costing £54.10). These costs were to be met from a Memorial Fund which had been in operation. An oak. door for the vestry seems to have been part of the original scheme. By the end of 1922, Mr. Rontree and Mr. Beresford moved to accept the estimates and sketches of Mr. Healey, the architect and to pay his fee of £40. To this plan, the church consented.

 

 

The War Memorial in it’s original position on Tunstall Village Green