Boldre War Memorial, Church of St John the Baptist

First World War memorial cross, c1920.

MATERIALS: constructed from granite.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial is a moulded cross with a tapering square shaft, set on a square plinth on a stepped base; it stands approximately 3m tall. At the bottom of the west face of the shaft, in applied lead lettering, is the inscription: ‘JESU / MERCY’ and on the plinth, ‘IN MEMORIAM / 1914 1918 / “THEIR NAME / LIVETH FOR EVERMORE”’. The north face has an inscribed metal plaque bearing the names of the 29 local men whose lives were lost in the conflict. The south face is inscribed ‘1939 1945’, and a plaque records the name of the 18 fallen soldiers from the Second World War. The east face has a plaque inscribed ‘ALSO REMEMBERED WITH GRATITUDE / THOSE BRITISH AND ALLIED SERVICE PERSONNEL WHOSE LIVES WERE LOST / WHILST SERVING WITH MILITARY FORCES ON STATIONS IN OR AROUND THIS / PARISH AND WHOSE GRAVES ARE IN THE NORTH WEST CORNER OF THE / CHURCHYARD. ALSO VICE ADMIRAL LE HOLLAND CB TOGETHER WITH 1416 / OFFICERS AND MEN OF HIS FLAGSHIP HMS HOOD WHICH SANK ON 24TH MAY / 1941 WHOSE MEMORIAL IS WITHIN THIS CHURCH’.