Leiston War Memorial, Church of St Margaret

Leiston War Memorial, erected in 1919 (with Second World War inscriptions added) and set immediately to the north-east of the Church of St Margaret. The monument was completed to the designs of Dorothy Anne Aldrich Rope (1883-1970).

MATERIALS: stone monument with affixed cast-bronze sculptural work.

PLAN: square in plan-form.

DESCRIPTION: Leiston War Memorial is set in a prominent position adjacent to the north door of the Church of St Margaret. The memorial takes the form of a simple stone Calvary cross with an Arts & Crafts style affixed bronze sculpture of the crucified Christ with a cross pattée halo. The cross is set on a tapered rectangular plinth and platform, enclosed by a low-set, square, stone boundary. At the base of the cross, on each of the four sides, are decorative foliate cast bronze details, the frontal portion embellished with a central chalice flanked by the dates of the conflict ‘1914’ and ‘1918’ on an open scroll. The frontal face of the memorial’s plinth carries an inscription enclosed within a carved laurel wreath which reads: ‘TO / THE GLORY OF GOD / AND IN HONOUR OF ALL / FROM THIS PARISH WHO / HAVE OFFERED THEMSELVES / AT THEIR COUNTRYS NEED / AND IN LOVING MEMORY OF / THOSE WHO IN MANY LANDS / AND ON MANY SEAS HAVE / LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES’. The names of the 116 who fell in the First World War are recorded in red lettering on three rectangular tablets on the side and rear faces of the plinth.

Following the Second World War further carved inscriptions were added to the lower portion of the plinth (below the tablets) to commemorate 43 of the fallen from this conflict along with four civilians who were killed in Leiston by enemy action. These names, like those of the First World War tablets above, are inscribed and picked-out in red, as are the dates of both conflicts, which were added to the four corners of the frontal elevation of the plinth at this time.