Hemsby War Memorial

Hemsby war memorial is located in the churchyard of the Church of St Mary the Virgin (Grade II-listed), in close proximity to a Grade II-listed C14 cross base and to other listed churchyard monuments. The memorial cross faces the street, standing in a small enclosure with a curved brick and flint wall to the rear.

The memorial cross comprises a rough-hewn wheel-head cross in granite on a tapering plinth, standing on a low step. The principal dedicatory inscription to the front face of the plinth reads: ERECTED TO COMMEMORATE THE/ GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918/ AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF THOSE WHO FELL/ (20 NAMES).

On a stone string course set into the rear wall a quotation from 1 Samuel 25 v16 reads: THEY WERE A WALL UNTO US BOTH BY NIGHT AND DAY. A small Portland stone tablet in the wall, to the left, reads: IN MEMORY OF/ THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ IN THE WORLD WAR/ 1939 – 1945, with, on a similar tablet to the right, the commemorated names from this later conflict.