Ealing War Memorial

The Ealing War Memorial is a Portland stone ashlar structure with brick walls faced in ashlar, and wrought-iron gates, built as a symmetrical composition of gate piers, quadrant walls, and end piers. The piers are supported on a moulded plinth and each bears a stone urn that originally came from Elm Grove, the Ealing home of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval. Flanking walls, added after 1945, bear names of those who died in the Second World War.

The gate piers frame the view of the entrance to Pitzanger Manor from Ealing Green. One pier has a sunken panel with a relief carving of olive branches and an inscribed quotation from the Ode Recited at the Harvard Commemoration by James Russell Lowell (1865): THEY COME/ TRANSFIGURED BACK/ SECURE FROM CHANGE/ IN THEIR HIGH-HEARTED/ WAYS/ BEAUTIFUL EVERMORE/ AND WITH THE RAYS/ OF MORN ON THEIR WHITE/ SHIELDS OF EXPECTATION. The left pier is inscribed 1945/1918 and the right 1939/1914, aligned with the panels of names on the walls to either side. The wrought-iron gates have ornate scrollwork and an arched overthrow embellished with the arms of the Borough.

The quadrant walls are faced with raised stone panels, 23 on each side, carved with the names of 1,051 who died in the First World War. The walls were raised above the moulded coping to incorporate a further band of narrow panels, also 23 on each side, inscribed with the names of those who fell in the Second World War. A frieze bears the inscription IN PROUD AND GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THIS/ BOROUGH WHO LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WARS OF 1914-1918 AND 1939-45, with a moulded cornice above. Additional flanking walls carry 10 panels inscribed with names of the Second World War dead, totaling 510.