Kingston upon Thames War Memorial

The memorial stands within the gated memorial gardens on the site of a former burial ground in Memorial Garden, Union Street.

The memorial consists of a bronze sculpture of a male warrior atop a granite pedestal with low flanking walls, the whole atop a stepped base. The sculpture is of a nude figure of a man bearing aloft a flaming cross while trampling upon a serpent which he kills with a sword, as two children shelter at his side.

The granite pedestal carries the principal inscription in applied bronze. The lower part of this, continuing onto the low flanking walls, carries bronze relief panels bearing 624 First World War names. The principal inscription now includes a dedication to the Second World War but no names were added.

Around the base of the bronze sculpture is inscribed: AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE / SUN AND IN THE MORNING / WE WILL REMEMBER THEM (from Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem For the Fallen). At the front of pedestal, beneath the sculpture, is inscribed: IN HONOUR OF / THE MEN OF THIS / TOWN WHO GAVE / THEIR LIVES IN / THE GREAT WARS / 1914 – 1919 / 1939 – 1945.

This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Online. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 February 2017.