West Derby War Memorial

First World War memorial. Erected 1922. Designed by Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner. Founders and stonemasons HH Martyn & Co, Cheltenham.

MATERIALS: Bronze figures on sandstone pedestal and base.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial stands at the north-west corner of the junction of St Helen’s Road and Burrows Lane, in a paved area enclosed by brick walls, gates and railings. It consists of a battered square Portland stone pedestal on a three-tier stepped plinth, supporting a life-size bronze statue of a junior army officer raising his field glasses in his left hand, his revolver in the other, his left foot resting on a Prussian helmet. Dress and weaponry are depicted in detail. A life-size bronze figure of a woman in contemporary dress climbs on the steps of the plinth, stretching upwards to offer a laurel branch to the soldier.

A bronze relief panel wraps around the four faces of the pedestal, which depict (anti-clockwise) marching soldiers, airmen, soldiers with camels and seamen loading a naval gun. The panels read: THE LAURELS OF THE / SONS ARE WATERED / FROM THE HEARTS / OF THE MOTHERS.

Affixed to the front (south-east) face of the pedestal a stone tablet is inscribed: 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.