Rowlands Castle War Memorial

The granite memorial stands in a small garden at the southern end of the churchyard of St John the Baptist Church (unlisted), at the junction of B2148 and B2149. It takes the form of a tall stone obelisk on a tapering plinth that bears inscribed marble plaques with black lettering on all four sides. The plinth stands on a two-stage base, square on plan, which is on a square stone platform.

The principal dedicatory inscription on the south-facing side of the plinth reads: ERECTED/ IN/ GRATEFUL MEMORY/ OF THE MEN OF THIS DISTRICT/ WHOSE NAMES/ ARE INSCRIBED HEREON/ WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ IN THE GREAT WAR/ 1914 – 1919. A plaque below this on the upper stage of the base was added after the Second World War and reads: IN GRATEFUL MEMORY/ THE NAMES ARE ADDED OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ 1939 – 1945.

The west- and east-facing sides of the plinth record the 30 names, with rank and regiment, of the men who died in the First World War. Below these, on the upper stage of the base, are rectangular plaques recording the names of 18 men who died in the Second World War. The inscription on the north-facing plaque on the plinth reads: GREATER/ LOVE/ HATH NO MAN/ THAN THIS/ THAT HE LAY/ DOWN/ HIS LIFE/ FOR HIS FRIENDS.

The memorial garden is enclosed to the rear by tall hedges and to the front by a dwarf wall, and the memorial is accessible from both the main road, and from a footpath through the churchyard by a small gate. It stands on a low mound at the centre of the garden, with two benches*, commemorating those that worked for the memorial’s upkeep, to either side of the garden. The dwarf wall, of flint with brick piers and brick coping, includes two stones let into either side of the path recording the memorial’s dedication with the inscription: THIS MONUMENT IS A SACRED TRUST TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, / TO BE CARED FOR AND CHERISHED FOR ALL TIME / DEDICATED 2 NOVEMBER 1919.

• Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.