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From Your Archives

File RAIL 1057/2868 held at The National Archives gives us some important information on this memorial and deals with the unveiling ceremony, which took place on 21st October 1921.

The file contains various papers concerning this unveiling including hand written letters from Earl Haig who performed the ceremony, the text of Earl Haig’s speech and that of the London and Western Railway chairman, an official photograph of the opening ceremony, a copy of “The Railway Gazette” of October 28th 1921 with full coverage of the memorial and the opening ceremony, two copies of the “L.&.N.W.R. Gazette” of November 1921 again covering the unveiling ,and two copies of the “Crewe and Nantwich Observer” of Saturday 29th October 1921. Crewe was in many ways the “hub” of the London and North Western Railway and many of the men whose death is remembered came from the Crewe area.

The file also gives us some valuable information on the memorial itself. Most references to this memorial state that it was the work of R.Wynn Owen, who was an L.N.W.R. employed architect but it was interesting to learn from the file that the bronze figures were the work of Boulton & Sons of Cheltenham and that the figures were modelled by a Mr.Neale, an employee of Boulton & Sons. Certainly these figures are superbly worked. The overall design was of course the work of Wynn Owen.

There is also some interesting correspondence in the file between the Chairman, The Honourable Charles Napier Lawrence, and the architect Wynn Owen.

Wynn Owen was particularly keen that his design be fully understood and bemoans the fact that “thousands of people who witnessed the unveiling of the monument went away in ignorance of its full significance.” Wynn Owen wrote a paper describing and explaining the memorial and asked that the text be read out at any official ceremony at Euston marking the next Armistice Day remembrance. The Chairman replied “…I do not think that the publication of an explanation of the symbolism of the monument is either necessary or desirable”.

The file contains Wynn Owen’s written interpretation.

The memorial, two recent photographs of which are shown here, remembers the 3,719 employees who gave their lives in the First World War. It comprises an obelisk, 45 feet in height, and at the very top and on each side is a cross and wreath. The entire structure weighed 365 tons each bronze figure weighing approximately 1 ton.

At the base four bronze figures, average height 8 feet, representing the Navy, the Infantry, the Artillery and the Flying Corps stand with bowed heads and reversed arms. On the southern face of the obelisk is inscribed in large Roman lettering “In Memory of Our Glorious Dead”. The lower portion of the memorial consists of a pedestal with a tablet of granite bearing the inscription. “In grateful memory of 3,719 men of the London & North Western Railway Company who, for their Country, Justice and Freedom, served and died in the Great War, 1914-1919. This monument was raised by their comrades and the company as a lasting memorial to their devotion.”