Twickenham War Memorial

War memorial. Erected 1921 by Twickenham Urban District. Bronze sculpture by Mortimer Brown. Singer & Sons founders.

MATERIALS: Bronze statue and plaques on Portland Stone pedestal.

DESCRIPTION: The war memorial stands in Radnor Gardens, the park created in 1903 from the grounds of Radnor House and other riverside villas.

The memorial comprises a square Portland stone pedestal on a moulded base and plinth, surmounted by a life size bronze figure of a soldier returning from war. The soldier is smiling and waving his cap in his right hand and holding his gun by his side in his left, his redundant helmet on the ground beside his feet. Dress and weaponry are depicted in detail. It is one of a small number of First World War memorials which portray the joyful returning soldier, in contrast to the more conventional attitudes of watchfulness or mourning; another notable example is ‘The Homecoming’ at Cambridge by R Tait McKenzie (listed Grade II).

On the south side is a bronze relief plaque of the Borough arms. Beneath is the inscription: 1914 – 1918 / TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY / OF THE MEN OF TWICKENHAM / WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR / THEIR NAME LIVETH EVERMORE / AND TO THOSE / WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES / IN THE WAR OF / 1939 – 1945.

The other three faces have bronze reliefs representing the Royal Air Force, the Royal Navy and the volunteer services. They portray, respectively, three airmen in hats and goggles, the front pair shaking hands, an aircraft propeller and wheel visible to the right; two naval officers on the bridge of a ship, one looking through binoculars, the other pointing into the distance, the head of a seaman in the foreground; and a nurse and a woman in Voluntary Aid Detachment uniform, a vehicle in the background - illustrating the VADs’ role as mechanics and drivers. The naval panel is a replica of the original, which was stolen in 2011, by Leander Architectural. The memorial was restored by Richmond Borough Council in 2012.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 5 June 2017.