Folkestone War Memorial

FOLKESTONE WAR MEMORIAL

This First World War memorial was designed by sculptor Ferdinand Victor Blundstone and unveiled on 2 December 1922. It stands on the Road of Remembrance, at the junction of The Leas, West Terrace, and the Road of Remembrance, facing towards the sea in the centre of a roundabout.

The monument rises 25 feet high and measures 26 feet wide. It comprises a central pedestal of Cornish granite with shallow curved flanking walls on either side. The pedestal bears the inscription: MAY THEIR / DEEDS BE / HELD IN / REVERENCE. It is crowned by a bronze female figure, robed from the waist down, holding a cross in her left hand and a laurel wreath in her right hand. A Union Jack hangs at half mast from the shaft of the cross.

At the base of the pedestal, between the flanking walls, is a cast bronze dedication panel in bas-relief. The panel depicts various divisions of the armed forces marching, facing towards Folkestone Harbour. Beneath the imagery is inscribed: THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY / IN EVER GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN FROM FOLKESTONE, / AND THE MANY THOUSANDS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE EMPIRE WHO PASSED THIS SPOT ON THEIR WAY / TO FIGHT IN THE GREAT WAR (1914-1918) FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND FREEDOM, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE / OF THIS TOWN WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE, AND WHOSE NAMES ARE HERE RECORDED, / THIS MEMORIAL IS HUMBLY DEDICATED.

Bronze plaques bearing the Roll of Honour are mounted on the flanking walls. The memorial is enclosed by a low stone wall with a pair of bronze gates at the front. Each gate bears a bronze wreath holding the inscription: MAY / THEIR DEEDS / BE HELD IN / REVERENCE.

The memorial was later enclosed and plaques were added in commemoration of those who fell in the Second World War.

The memorial was unveiled by Lord Radnor and dedicated by the vicar of Folkestone, Reverend Canon Tindall. At the dedication ceremony, floral tributes were laid by the Mayor of Folkestone (Alderman E J Bishop) on behalf of the town, Colonel W J Dugan on behalf of the Shorncliffe Garrison, the Deputy-Mayor of Calais on behalf of Calais and France, and the Vice-Consuls on behalf of the Belgian and Italian Allies.

Folkestone was a major embarkation point for troops during the First World War. The memorial stands at the head of the road leading down to Folkestone Harbour; this road was renamed the Road of Remembrance after the war to commemorate the passage of thousands of men along it on their way to the battlefields of Europe.

Ferdinand Victor Blundstone (1882-1951) was of English and French descent and studied at the Royal Academy, where he won a travelling scholarship. He later attended the John Cass School of Art and worked under the celebrated sculptor Gilbert Bayes. Blundstone undertook a number of commissions for commemorative monuments, including the war memorial on Trinity Street, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester (listed Grade II), and two war memorials at the Prudential Assurance building in Holborn, London (listed Grade II).