Sherborne Abbey First World War Memorial and Second World War Memorial Wall

The First World War memorial, designed by WD Caröe and unveiled in 1921, stands to the southwest of Sherborne Abbey, within the abbey close. It is accompanied by a freestanding wall to the north, designed by Messrs Blacking and Potter, which commemorates those who died in the Second World War, eighteen civilians killed in an air raid in 1940 during the Battle of Britain, and members of the US military killed in a landmine accident nearby in 1944. The memorials are constructed from Doulting stone with bronze plaques.

Stone steps lead up from street level to the memorial, which is situated within a paved area bordered by hedges and a low stone wall. The First World War memorial is composed of a hexagonal plinth with two hexagonal steps above. Bronze plaques on the upper step record the names of 175 who fell in the First World War. Above this is a buttressed square plinth, rising to a square plinth angled at 45 degrees. This is surmounted by a square base with concave corners and an octagonal moulded coping, inscribed "IN MEMORIAM 1914-1919" on the north and south faces. The west side bears the inscription "THEY DIED FOR FREEDOM AND HONOUR", and the east side reads "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS". The octagonal shaft rises to a pierced cross quadrate, with an overall height of 25 feet.

The Second World War memorial wall, to the north of the First World War memorial, carries bronze plaques. A plaque on the left commemorates those lost in the Second World War. In the middle is a plaque dedicated to the eighteen who died in the air raid on Sherborne on September 30, 1940. Below this is a plaque commemorating the 294th Engineer Combat Battalion, United States Army. The inscription details that on March 20, 1944, while training for the invasion of Normandy, 29 members of C Company, 294th Engineer Combat Battalion, were killed in a landmine explosion. The plaque lists the names and the erection date of June 6, 1989. A further plaque, also erected in 1989, commemorates other members of the battalion who died in action during the Second World War.