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History of the West Brentford WW1 Memorial

David Bright, who has undertaken research into the men who are named on the memorial, gave a talk at Brentford Local History Day on June 6th 2009 about the history of this memorial. The process he describes must have taken place in countless other towns and villages as each community sought a fitting way to honour the men they had lost.

The key points from David's talk:

• The war memorial dates: 1914 - 1919 (not 1918) are due to the fact that the war continued into 1919 in some areas; the 1918 finish was for the northern Europe theatre of war and even here this was spread over a period of months
• A small number of men died after the armistice and into 1919 never making a full recovery from wounds received during battle
• In choosing a war memorial a key consideration in the design was the large number of names that had to be included: 177
• The memorial is marble with brass lettering; originally it was planned to include a wooden screen in St Lawrence's with fewer names, but finally the larger stone memorial was placed outside the church
• The names were recorded in surname order, which had the advantage that brothers were listed together (other memorials included different sections for the Army, Navy, Air Force personnel; others recorded names in order of rank, senior rank at the top down to privates at the bottom: this also didn't suit St Lawrence's; the highest rank was a Captain and the majority were privates)
• The process of obtaining the names of the deceased may have relied, on some occasions, on accounts in the local newspaper: and as spelling was occasionally incorrect the result has been some mis-spellings on the memorial; also the stone mason may have made some errors
• 5 names are included on the side, rather than the face, of the memorial; 4 of these were men who were missing and whose deaths were not confirmed; it may be that parents were reluctant initially to put forward their sons' names in these circumstances
• The fifth man had suffered from exposure and was sent home, but died: he is buried in the South Ealing Cemetery; there may have been concerns at including his name alongside those whose bodies could not be brought home for burial in their home area
• The age range of those recorded on the memorial covered the youngest through to the oldest, the youngest George Brooks at 17 years and the oldest John Harrison at 44 years
• The earliest recorded death was William Bishop November 1914 and the last man killed before the armistice 2nd November 1918 was also the oldest, John Harrison
• The son of Fred Turner is commemorated on the memorial: the man who heroically attempted to save him was awarded the VC; as Fred Turner was the first librarian of Brentford Library it is fitting that the memorial commemorating his son be re-sited outside the Library, along with other Brentford war memorials.

Photo of the memorial in its original setting outside St Lawrence's church, 2008; index of names from the memorial.

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