West Derby War Memorial

The West Derby War Memorial is a First World War memorial erected in 1922, designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner, with founders and stonemasons HH Martyn & Co from Cheltenham.

The memorial is located at the north-west corner of the junction of St Helen’s Road and Burrows Lane, in a paved area surrounded by brick walls, gates, and railings. It features a battered square Portland stone pedestal on a three-tier stepped plinth, which supports a life-size bronze statue of a junior army officer. The officer is depicted raising his field glasses in his left hand and holding a revolver in his right, with his left foot resting on a Prussian helmet. His dress and weaponry are detailed. Additionally, a life-size bronze figure of a woman in contemporary dress is shown climbing the steps of the plinth, reaching upwards to offer a laurel branch to the soldier.

A bronze relief panel wraps around the four faces of the pedestal, illustrating marching soldiers, airmen, soldiers with camels, and seamen loading a naval gun in an anti-clockwise arrangement. The panels are inscribed with the words: "THE LAURELS OF THE / SONS ARE WATERED / FROM THE HEARTS / OF THE MOTHERS."

On the front (south-east) face of the pedestal, there is a stone tablet inscribed with: "TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY / OF ALL THOSE FROM THE / WEST DERBY HUNDRED OF / THE COUNTY PALATINE OF / LANCASTER WHO FOUGHT / & GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR / THEIR KING & COUNTRY IN / THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918."