The Great War Memorial, Rotherham

Rotherham War Memorial
Postcard from my personal collection

Rotherham war memorial was unveiled at Clifton Park on Sunday 26th November 1922, in a ceremony attended by General Sir Ivor Maxse KCB CVO DSO, He was a senior British Army officer who had served in the First World War, and at that time held the position of General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Northern Command.

The monument was designed by local architect Major J E Knight and built by Mr. F. Tory & Sons, along with several other Yorkshire artisans. The memorial stands just inside the park gates, (on the junction of Doncaster Road and Clifton Lane.) The sandstone cenotaph is flanked by a curtain wall to the rear, which bears the names of 1,304 individuals who lost their lives during WW1. The names are inscribed across thirteen bronze panels and are grouped according to the regiment and service in which they served. The centre panel has an inscription which reads:

"1914 Sic virescit industria 1918 

 To commemorate the men of Rotherham

Who during the great war 1914-1918 

Gave the most that love can give 

Life itself 

For God, For King, For Country

And Freedom of the World. "

After the Second World War, the inscription on the main cenotaph was updated to include a dedication to those who died in the conflict, but no individual names were added at that point. It would be almost 70 years before that would occur.  On 19th February 1986 the memorial was given grade II listed status. The inscription on the cenotaph currently reads:

"For

Remembrance

If I should fall think only this of me 

There is some corner of a foreign field 

That is forever England

The World War 1939 - 1945"

In 2015 the names of  a 1,124 individuals who fell in the second world war were added to a separate memorial at the rear of the cenotaph's curtain wall. This memorial was the result of an eight year fundraising campaign undertaken by the Friends of Clifton Park and the Rotherham Advertiser. The group managed to raise £30,000 in donations for the memorial's construction. On Wednesday 16 September 2015 Rev Canon David Bliss led a service of dedication where the new memorial was unveiled to the public.