War Memorial (The Response)

The Response is a First World War memorial and sculpture of 1923, commemorating the massing of the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers in April 1915, and their march down the Great North Road and through Newcastle to its Central Station. It is constructed from Shap granite, with bronze statuary, and is signed by Sir W. Goscombe John on the plinth, the founder being A B Burton of Thames Ditton. The memorial consists of a granite screen wall standing on a rusticated plinth, with a raised, curved centerpiece supporting an impressive bronze sculptural group. The plinth projects to accommodate the sculpture, and the central slab has a sloping apron, resembling an altar from a distance, and features an inscribed vertical slab. The bronze group depicts numerous highly detailed figures, those in the foreground marching in step with two drummer boys, while those behind are shown pausing to bid farewell to family. Above them, a trumpeting angel, allegorical of renown, rises above the screen wall.

The rear of the screen wall has stubby pylons where it breaks forward. Carved in relief from the same granite as the wall is a bare-headed St George, standing in the centre on a bracket formed of two seahorses, the supporters of the arms of Newcastle. Flanking St George are escutcheons displaying the arms of Newcastle and of Gateshead. Two figures of Northumberland Fusiliers are carved on the flanks, one in the uniform of 1674, when the regiment was first raised, and the other in First World War service dress, complete with tin hat, trench coat and gas mask. The memorial stands on shallow steps; originally it was set within a simple grass area, but now sits within municipal planting. A bas relief inscription on the front slab reads: NON SIBI SED PATRIE / THE RESPONSE 1914. Inscriptions on the rear state: QUO FATA VOCANT and commemorate the raising of the B Company of the 9th Battalion and the 16th, 18th, and 19th Service Battalions, Northumberland Fusiliers, by the Newcastle and Gateshead Chamber of Commerce in August-October. The memorial was a gift from Sir George Renwick Bt DL and Lady Renwick.