East Malling War Memorial

East Malling War Memorial

A war memorial erected in 1922, designed by the architect John Ninian Comper and carved by the mason and sculptor William Drinkwater Gough. The memorial stands at the corner of Church Walk and High Street.

The memorial takes the form of a Gothic churchyard cross. It comprises a tall octagonal stone column rising from a square base with a stepped octagonal plinth. The top of the column is crenellated and crowned by a canopy made up of four foliated ogee arches supporting a slender pyramidal finial. Within the arches are high-relief carved religious scenes depicting the Crucifixion, the Virgin and Child, Saint George and the dragon, and Saint Martin of Tours, interspersed with heraldic shields. At the base of the cross is a carved laurel wreath inscribed with the words "TO THE MEN OF THIS PARISH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919". The names of 53 villagers killed in the First World War are inscribed on the plinth, with a further 45 names added after the Second World War.

The memorial was unveiled on 31 October 1920 by Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee, the naval commander famous for his victory at the Battle of the Falkland Islands.

John Ninian Comper (1864-1960) was one of the last major architects of the Gothic Revival. Born in Aberdeen, he trained initially under the glass painter C.E. Kempe before becoming articled to the renowned church architect G.F. Bodley. Throughout his long career, Comper designed numerous churches, most notably the lavish Saint Mary the Virgin at Wellingborough (completed 1931), but the bulk of his work comprised church fittings, stained glass, vestments and monuments. His architectural style increasingly blended English late Gothic with Classical and Byzantine elements. He designed many memorials in the years following the First World War, including major commissions such as the Warriors' Chapel at Westminster Abbey (1925) and the Welsh National War Memorial at Cardiff (1928), alongside numerous village monuments at places such as Oakham and Uppingham in Leicestershire. Many of these, including East Malling, were executed in collaboration with William Drinkwater Gough (circa 1861-1938), a mason and sculptor based in Kennington, south London. Gough later worked with the architect Giles Gilbert Scott on projects including Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire and the church of Saint Alphege at Bath.