City of Gloucester War Memorial

Heritage listing

Details A war memorial, comprising a monument and a Wall of Remembrance, the monument erected in 1925 to designs by A P Frith, and the wall and surrounding precinct, by Waller and Son, added in 1933. MATERIALS: Portland stone, with bronze plaques and sculpture. PLAN: the precinct describes a triangle with three curved sides, within which the cenotaph is placed centrally; to the south side, the area is bounded by the Wall of Remembrance. To the other two sides, the raised precinct is defined by kerbs. DESCRIPTION: the memorial takes the form of a central cenotaph, dating from 1925, and the Wall of Remembrance, added in 1933. The cenotaph stands on a three-stepped platform, with a deep foot and tapering sides. The top steps in, and is surmounted by a cast bronze figure of a sphinx, the emblem of the Gloucestershire Regiment, whose dead from the First World War are commemorated on the cenotaph. The sphinx, and the bronze plaques, were made by H H Martyn of Cheltenham. The narrow north side has an inlaid, cast bronze laurel wreath. The broad east and west sides carry large, bronze plaques with raised, laurel borders which carry the inscriptions and names. One bears the inscription TO/ THE MEMORY OF/ THE FALLEN OF THE/ 1/5TH AND 2/5TH BATTALIONS/ THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE/ REGIMENT/ 1914-1918. Others are inscribed with the names of the dead. Behind the cenotaph is a long, low, curving Wall of Remembrance, broken in the centre by iron gates, with saltire rails and the sphinx emblem, and clustered piers, topped by the cipher GR and a crown. The wall has a Moderne sensibility; it terminates at either end in a slightly tapering pier with a stepped cap, and the centre of each section steps up slightly in two stages. These raised sections each carry, in bronze lettering 1914-1918 / TO T

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.