Yaxley Cemetery War Memorial

The memorial stands on the southern side of the village cemetery, close to the gate on Waterslade Road. It comprises a c2m high, dark grey, rough-hewn Aberdeen Granite rectangular-sectioned block. Carved in relief to the head of the south face are the Union and French flags with 1914 above and 1919 below.

Inscribed below the flags in carved, painted lettering is TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD/ WHO CHAMPIONED OUR CAUSE IN THE GREAT WAR/ AND FOR US MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE/ (39 NAMES)/ “GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS”.

On the east face is carved in relief 1939 1945 with the 21 names of those men and women who died during the Second World War beneath, in precisely similar style to the First World War names. On the north face an inscription records the death of a local soldier in Iraq in 2007.

In about 2010 the memorial was reset on a three-stage black marble stepped base, and a black marble tablet commemorating the death of a Polish pilot killed nearby in 1943 was placed alongside. These are excluded from the listing, as are five Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstones and a surrounding concrete post and chain fence.