The Unveiling of Sheffield War Memorial - Barker's Pool

The unveiling of Sheffield War Memorial 
Postcard from my personal collection

Sheffield war memorial was unveiled in a public ceremony at Barker's Pool on 28th October 1925 by Sir Charles Harington, a WW1 veteran and General Officer Commanding Northern Command (who also attended the opening of The Menin Gate in 1927.) The memorial was then dedicated by the Bishop of Sheffield, Leonard Hedley Burrows.

The monument's unusual concept was due to architect Charles Denny Carus Wilson who created the memorial along with the combined efforts of  sculptor George Alexander. Many aspects of it's design are unique, this is likely due to several reasons, one of them being the limited ground space available for it's construction, which prevented the building of a more traditional and substantial sandstone cenotaph. Secondly, unlike other architects who were often responsible for multiple war memorials, this was the only one that Carus Wilson contributed to.

In order to settle on a design, a competition was held for Sheffield based artisans to submit ideas to. Carus Wilson's vision was selected out of  34 entries. Although he was born in Kent, at the time of the contest he was head of the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield. The memorial's design features a 25m flag pole (which is in fact a ship's mast), mounted on a octagonal base which features the likeness of four Tommies. The bronze plinth was sculpted by Glasgow born artist George Alexander, who had ties to Sheffield's metal work industry. The casting was undertaken by Parlanti's bronze foundry in London. The memorial cost a total of £5,345 to erect.

By R Sneath, Paradise Sq. Sheffield,
Postcard from my personal collection

The monument currently stands in a pedestrian area between John Lewis and City hall. Barker's Pool has changed significantly since the memorial's erection, at the time it of it's construction the area on which it sat was a traffic island. This plot of land had been purchased by the council in September 1923, as the intended location for the new City Hall. After much discussion it was decided that the memorial should be situated near the site of the prospected City Hall, to be a companion to it.  In fact it was the City Hall's architect E Vincent Harris, who had judged the war memorial contest. this was done, in part, to insure that the two structures complimented each other and would both fit into the available space.

WW2 Shrapnel damage to the War memorial
and City Hall

Another aspect that makes the memorial unique are the coats of arms which are incorporated into the base, they represent the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and City of Sheffield . Also rather than featuring the names of the fallen, regimental badges are displayed instead . However, it seems there was never any intention for individual names to be included on the monument, Over 5,000 individuals from Sheffield died in the war and there would simply not be enough room for that amount of names on the memorial, Instead a roll of honor was commissioned, to be housed in the City hall once it was built in 1932.

Sheffield Roll of Honour, held in the City Hall
Photos with thanks to KR.

During The Second World War both the memorial and City Hall received shrapnel damage to their stonework, but remained standing. After WW2 the monument was updated to included a dedication to the conflict. The memorial was given grade II listed status on 28th June 1973. In recent years the monument has undergone extensive restoration work.

The top right image on this blog post is number one in a series of postcards depicting the war memorial. Interestingly the postcard was posted on 6th November 1925, only nine days after the unveiling. The publishers were obviously on the ball when it came to getting their postcards printed. (Sadly the corner was damaged in a clumsy attempt to the remove the stamp at some point in the past.) The second postcardis another from my collection, this time a it's a multi-view postcard, depicting three different angles of the memorial, Two of the photographs show either side of the base as well as full length shot of the unveiling ceremony in centre.

Resources__________________________________________________
Historicengland.org.uk - Listing entry
iwm.org.uk - Sheffield City Hall memorial
Rupert Harris - Conservation Ltd
Wikipedia - Sir Charles Harington Harington