War Memorial

770-1/0/10009

BARNARD CASTLE GALGATE (Centre of) War Memorial

21-SEP-06

II Boer War Memorial 1905 in the form of a rough boulder of red granite resting upon a large square plinth of pecked sandstone. The original base of the memorial is a square block of rusticated sandstone, raised by the construction of a later base of coursed sandstone. A metal plaque attached to the front of the plinth reads:

PRO PATRIA/IN MEMORY OF THE OFFICERS, NCOS AND MEN OF THE/3RD (MILITIA) BATT THE DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY/ THE IMPERIAL YEOMANRY AND LOCAL VOLUNTEERS ATTACHED TO THE LINE REGIMENTS/WHO DIED IN SOUTH AFRICA DURING THE BOER WAR/1899-1902.

A smaller plaque below records that the memorial sits within a garden of remembrance dedicated to those who fell in the Second World War.

HISTORY: the Boer War Memorial was unveiled on 27th July 1905 by Colonel V Grimshaw of the third Battalion Durham (militia) Light Infantry; the Regimental band played and the memorial was dedicated by the vicar of Barnard Castle. The town had strong links with the Durham light Infantry who had their HQ in the town until 1957. There is a suggestion locally that this memorial might not have been officially recognised, as there are two other memorials in the town commemorating the Boer War. After the Second World War, a memorial garden was created around this memorial and this might have provided the context for the re-positioning of the metal plaque and the raising of the memorial by the construction of a coursed sandstone base.

This simple example of a Boer War memorial in the form of a granite boulder on a sandstone plinth was erected in 1905. War memorials have a very strong historical and cultural significance on both a local and national scale and Boer War memorials are relatively scarce and will normally warrant designation. This example fully meets the criteria for listing in a national context. Listed at Grade II.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online, the War Memorials Register and North East War Memorials Project. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 6 September 2018.