1923 War Memorial, Castle Gardens, Castle Street, Lisburn, County Antrim

War Memorial, Castle Street, Lisburn

A free-standing bronze war memorial unveiled in April 1923, designed by Henry Charles Fehr, the English sculptor of Swiss origin who was a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. The memorial replaced an earlier temporary memorial that had stood in Market Square.

The monument comprises a life-sized cast bronze winged female figure of Victory, yielding a sword in her right hand and a wreath in her left, balanced on one foot upon a sphere. This figurative statue stands on a two-stage limestone plinth with bronze plaques and enrichments. The upper stage of the square-plan stone plinth is clad on each of its four sides with a rectangular bronze plaque. These are decorated with a bronze egg-and-dart course at their base, bronze dolphins to the lower corners, and winged bronze infant heads to the upper corners. A deep moulding below rests on a slightly larger stone plinth base.

The north-facing plaque reads: "TO THE, GLORIOUS MEMORY, OF THE, MEN AND WOMEN, OF LISBURN, WHO GAVE, THEIR LIVES, IN TWO WARS, 1914-18. 1939-45", with the stone base inscribed with "SOMME" and "THIEPVAL". The east, south and west plaques list the names of fallen soldiers, with further names inscribed on the plinth bases alongside "MESSINES" and "YPRES".

The memorial employs neo-classical language and sits on a stepped Travertine stone podium set within granite setts. It is enclosed to Castle Gardens by spear-headed iron railings on a stone plinth wall, with a pair of steel street lights having copper lanterns. The memorial is located on the south side of Castle Street facing north, positioned within a semi-circular railed site beside Castle Gardens.

The monument was initially dedicated to those who fell in the First World War. Subsequently, the names of casualties from the Second World War, Korean and Falklands Wars were added, and the memorial was rededicated in 2007. The memorial has group value with other listed structures in the adjacent Castle Gardens.