War Memorial

This List entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 10/05/2017

1197/0/10015

HERTINGFORDBURY BIRCH GREEN War Memorial

24-MAY-04

II War Memorial. c1924. Limestone ashlar with three octagonal steps, an octagonal plinth and socle, from which rises the chamfered body of the cross which has a circular boss at the point of the joining of the arms of the cross to the body. To the North and South faces and superimposed upon the cross are swords in relief. Below this on the South face is a dove in relief and on the North face a three-masted ship. To the top of the octagonal plinth is the running inscription in relief "THESE DIED FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919". The names of the dead are incised below. The memorial records the names of the War Poet Julian Grenfell and his brother, William, the sons of Lord Desborough.

The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker FRIBA RA. In his early work for the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission Baker made a proposal for a cross to stand in all of the Commission’s cemeteries, but a design by Sir Reginald Blomfield was chosen. Although the Commission’s architects were free to use crosses of their own choice within the cemeteries that they designed, the Blomfield cross proved to be the universal choice. Baker, nevertheless, used variants of his cross design for a number of English war memorials, including that at Hertingfordbury.

Sir Herbert Baker FRIBA RA (1862-1946) was born, and died, in Cobham, his English home. Articled to Arthur Baker in 1881, he was Assistant to Messrs Ernest George and Peto (1886-90) and attended the Royal Academy Schools. During the 1890s he was in South Africa, designing the Prime Ministerial residence ‘Groote Schuur’ and many private residences as well as government buildings following the South African union. From 1912 he collaborated with Sir Edwin Lutyens in India on New Dehli. From 1917 to 1928 Baker was one of the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission principal architects, for whom he designed 113 cemeteries on the Western Front including Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world. He was also responsible for four Memorials to the Missing including those to the South Africans at Delville Wood and the Indians at Neuve Chapelle. He designed twenty-four war memorials in England. During the inter-war years his work at home included South Africa House (Grade II), Rhodes House (Grade II) and, his last major public commission, the Bank of England (Grade I).

The war memorial forms a group with Nos. 1 & 3 Birch Green; Nos. 6, 8 & 10 Birch Green; Nos. 12 & 14 Birch Green; Nos. 24 & 26 Birch Green.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 12 January 2017.