Special service to be held at Lancaster War Memorial 100 years after it was unveiled

Located next to Lancaster Town Hall, the War Memorial was dedicated on December 3, 1924 and a ceremony to mark its centenary takes place on December 17.

The names of 1006 men who died in World Wars One and Two, the Korean War and the Falklands War are inscribed on the memorial.

Three hundred of those remembered from the Great War have no known grave.

In World War One, the dead sons of the Lancaster district included one set of four brothers, six sets of three brothers and fifty four sets of two brothers so it was fitting that the mothers of some of

these brothers took part in the unveiling ceremony.

Mrs Butterworth lost four sons, Mrs Gardner and Mrs Williams both lost three sons and Mrs Prickett lost two sons.

A descendant of the Butterworths still lays a wreath at the memorial to this day.

Just a month after the Armistice, it was decided Lancaster should have a War Memorial though it took another three years before a committee was formed and a public appeal launched to pay for it.

Some £2,230 was raised of which £1,894 was spent with the balance transferring to the Corporation for the continued repair and upkeep of the memorial including any additional names.

Forms were used to ask the families of the fallen for names to be inscribed on the memorial and to invite them to a civic reception.

The War Memorial and Garden of Remembrance were designed by landscape architects, T H Mawson & Sons who were also responsible for the Westfield Memorial Village.

Thomas Mawson’s son was killed in World War One.

The design, featuring the bronze figure of Peace, is similar to that of the Belgian Memorial to Britain on London’s Thames Embankment.

Three hundred people who had subscribed to the Memorial joined more than 900 relatives of the dead at the dedication ceremony led by Lancaster’s mayor, Alderman George Jackson.

He hoped that Lancastrians would ‘never forget their duty’ and that the Corporation who took on ownership of the memorial on that day, would always see that it was carefully tended and make the

garden beautiful each spring.

Every vantage point was taken for the ceremony.

Robert and lower Nelson Street were crowded and the Town Hall windows were filled with people.

The bands of the King’s Own Royal Regiment provided the music for the ceremony which was addressed by the Rev J.W. Mountford, superintendent of the Wesleyan Circuit, who had

been a chaplain in the Great War.

After World War Two, Lancaster War Memorial was extended to include a new bronze panel recording a further 300 people who died.

Subsequent conflicts have seen another 25 names added.

A service and rededication of the War Memorial is planned for December 17 and among the special guests will be the Duke of Gloucester.

This year’s Remembrance Sunday service at Lancaster War Memorial takes place on November 10.

Services will also take place at Morecambe War Memorial and the War Memorial in Carnforth which also marks its centenary this year.

*Much of the information in this article is taken from The Last Post published by Lancaster Military Heritage Group.