West Hartlepool War Memorial
Encyclopedia
West Hartlepool War Memorial is a war memorial
in Hartlepool
, England
which is dedicated to, and in honour of, both the living and the dead from the town of West Hartlepool
in World War I
.
West Hartlepool was amalgamated with Hartlepool in the 1960s.
The memorial (including a monument in the form of granite obelisk
on a pedestal rising from a platform) is located at what is still called 'Victory Square' off Victoria Road, in the town centre of what is known since the 1960s as 'Hartlepool' and (from the same date) is occupied, in part, by the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre
. 'Victory Square' (as a war memorial, and as defined within a public document in 1923) was however, in that year (1923), in its original form as a memorial, constructed as determined in 1919 by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee itself on the Territorial Force Parade Ground adjacent to Victoria Road.
The site of this memorial, with as a leading inscription 'The Great War 1914-1919' on the pedestal of the obelisk at the time of the unveiling and including a 'platform' with five steps described as 'symbolizing the five years of the Great War' (description in the leaflet as referred to below, 'External Links') was historically within the area of a Parade Ground to the south of a highway originally named 'Cambridge Road' and renamed 'Victoria Road' on the occasion of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee.
The area is shown on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey (OS) plans dated 1897 and 1919 of the Victorian new town known as 'West' Hartlepool (or together with the historic Hartlepool the 'Hartlepools') where it is named 'Parade Ground'. Within this 'Parade Ground', also known locally as 'Armoury Field', is a building named the 'Armoury', this being occupied from c. 1870 by military units within the body set up in the 19th Century and known from 1907 at the time of the unveiling as the 'Territorial Force' ('TF'), currently entitled in England and Scotland the 'Territorial Army' (see Reserve Forces and Cadets Association).
It seems that before the recorded involvement by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee of any artists or architects the area if not the design of the war memorial site was almost exactly predetermined by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee with or without consultation with the local TF but almost certainly with such consultation given that the site as eventually laid out involved the partial demolition of their 19th Cent. Armoury possessing on OS plans a particular relationship, together with the Parade Ground itself, to the road known from 1897 as 'Victoria Road', this War Memorial Committee itself having been created both by popular support and by the intention of the West Hartlepool Borough Council with a view to creating what is described in a public document, the Council minutes, as a 'permanent memorial' for West Hartlepool, being a memorial which eventually included another element that also extended to Hartlepool as currently recorded by the Charity Commission under 'Hartlepool War Memorial and Crosby Homes', previously 'Hartlepools' (minutes of the Peace Committee, April 1919).
As recorded in the press (report of meeting of the Committee in the Northern Daily Mail on 15 May 1919 in the form of a suggestion by Ald. Macfarlane that what should be done was to 'purchase the Armoury Field, widen out a width three or four times Victoria-road, and call it Victory Place or Square') the area and location of the site as a memorial were suggested in the first instance by this 'Alderman' (or senior council member) of West Hartlepool Borough Council, which Alderman here again used the word 'permanent' without referring to any of the legal issues relating to permanent or perpetual occupation of land under English law of which he was probably nonetheless aware (namely the requirement if this is to be made possible and legally binding of the setting up of a charitable or public purpose trust under the control of equitable jurisdiction distinct from 'common', 'statutory' or 'case' law).
The design of the monument within the site to be named 'Victory Place or Square or some other appropriate name' (described as in itself a memorial) was it seems (and as reported in both the national architectural journal The Builder and the local press in September of that year) almost entirely separate from and independent of either the Committee or the Council as such, being the result of a competition adjudicated upon in 1921 by a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects under procedures relating to the design of war memorials (which were it seems fairly general at the time throughout Britain and as recorded in The Builder without of course being in any way obligatory, this leading to them being disregarded by numerous War Memorial Committees in the name of independence) the memorial in this case having been, in its relation to the existing architecture, already decided upon, this being therefore a precondition of any architect's proposal of design in the competition.
It (the architect's monument and platform) was unveiled and dedicated together with the 'Square' two years later on 11 October 1923 the twenty fourth anniversary of the declaration of the Second South African (Boer) War in 1899 (whether by coincidence or otherwise).
It was unveiled on his father's behalf by the son of the Lord Lieutenant
of County Durham, the Earl of Durham, and was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Durham (East and West Hartlepool being historically,
and at still that time, within County Durham and the county Lord Lieutenant or 'Lord-Lieutenant' being constitutionally the ex-officio president of the County Durham units of the TF and as that person acting on behalf of the King or Queen as the Head of the Armed Forces, at the time King George V, with the text on the north elevation of the Monument based on the message sent by the King-Emperor after the First World War to the next of kin of the casualties of the British Empire as recorded in the Imperial War Museum in London, this having been apparently the most widely circulated document that was ever issued).
Having previously provided, upon this occasion, a formal escort in the parade from Church Square for, in particular, the son of the Lord Lieutenant, himself a Captain, and as such unveiling the memorial, men of the Royal Garrison Artillery ('RGA') are shown on the plan entitled Plan showing the Site of the Memorial and Positions to be taken up by the several Bodies Assembling as having lined up on a section of the Square under the title GUARD OF HONOUR together with a total of eleven other groups or parties including the clergy, a band and choir and military buglers, with 'Section 1' entitled DISABLED EX SERVICE MEN & SERVICE VETERANS and an unnumbered section entitled 'PLATFORM' (next to the 'platform' as described within the text under THE MONUMENT DESCRIBED in the leaflet entitled West Hartlepool War Memorial 1914-1919 - Unveiling & Dedication - Thursday, 11th October, 1923, p. 11, this being a plan which can be held - upon due consideration of its scale, 1 inch to 92 feet, and its character as a plan - to have been intended as a vital source of information so far as both the character of the war memorial - with regard in particular to the relationship between the monument and the platform as described on p. 11 and the war memorial site - and the intended significance of the ceremonies held on 11 October 1923 are concerned); today (ninety years and another world war later) it seems these issues, together with their relationship to history, continue officially in question.
The 'East Coast' Raid upon the 'Hartlepools' opened at first light on 16 December 1914 with a fifteen-minute bombardment of the Hartlepool Coastal Defence Unit or 'battery' by all three German High Sea Fleet battleships involved in this section of this three-part raid which included a separate raid on Whitby and a joint raid on Scarborough. Historically, this section of the army (the RGA) were the armed forces which at the time (1914), together with the Durham Light Infantry, occupied the Armoury and manned batteries both in the 'Hartlepools' and at other coastguard stations throughout the British Isles (including perhaps Scarborough, where it seems possible that there was in fact a battery that was at the time of the raid unmanned. This raid led to the death of the first soldiers to die in British soil as a result of enemy action and was on the documentary evidence considered a major disaster by everybody in Britain prepared to consider the matter in an unprejudiced way; the Admiralty in general wished to suppress its history so far as possible and if possible have it ignored altogether; however, Winston Churchill (at the time the United Kingdom First Lord of the Admiralty related to the person holding within the Admiralty the position of First Sea Lord
) used the raid on the 'undefended' town Scarborough in a recruitment campaign with no reference to the raid on the Hartlepools (a defended port of the Royal Navy and consequently a German victory, their battleships having returned home with no British naval counter-attack which achieved any success even if there was a brief engagement, upon the approach of the German ships to the Hartlepools, with considerable courage in ships not of the same fighting category).
The principal feature of one section in historic (East) Hartlepool of a memorial designed by Philip Bennison is a statue which is described in the local press as a 'winged figure in bronze' representing 'Triumphant Youth' (Northern Daily Mail 17 December 1921 a copy of which is included within a public document, the minutes of Hartlepool Borough Council, December 1921, held at Teesside Archives), this being a statue in Redheugh Gardens upon a pedestal with four cartouches, two of them (northeast and southwest elevations) in the form of 'achievements of arms' with one of them (eastern elevation) showing what is perhaps the now removed Lighthouse Battery with the inscription FOR US THEY DIED and the date '1914' and another (western elevation) the historic coat of arms of the town Hartlepool, later transformed in a different fashion for the amalgamated local authorities under the same name, but already reflected in the arms of West Hartlepool.
Effectively the relationship between the 'Hartlepools' ('East' or historic Hartlepool and the Victorian new town) in respect of the 'Great War' (or 'First World War') exists historically in a number of ways apart from their common involvement in the East Coast Raid, but in particular in the form of the war memorials erected in both towns. Both were unveiled either by the Earl of Durham or by his son on his behalf. The unveiling by the Lord Lieutenant himself in Redheugh Gardens was followed by an unveiling by the Chairman of the (East) Hartlepool War Memorial Committee and his wife on the immediately adjacent Promenade (tablets dated 1914-1919 with the inscription TO THESE UNCONQUERED DEAD) and another unveiling by the Commanding Officer of the Coastal Defence Unit, Colonel Robson, of a war memorial tablet on the Lighthouse Slope somewhat further removed and in a different direction. This tablet is placed on the 'Lighthouse Slope' next to the Coastal Defence Unit batteries (the Heugh Battery and the Lighthouse Battery, the Heugh Battery with a Union Jack immediately adjacent to the tablet) and records the death of the first soldiers to die on British soil as a result of enemy action in the first raid on British soil since the creation of the United Kingdom in 1707, these matters being as reported in two articles by the press (Northern Daily Mail) apparently on the same day, 17 December 1921, seven years and one day after the raid, together with an illustration of both the 1914 memorial and the 1914-1919 tablets elsewhere on the Promenade within a separate article entitled HARTLEPOOL'S WAR MEMORIAL Unveiled by the Earl of Durham apparently by the sculptor Philip B Bennison, showing the tablets within Redheugh Gardens and the achievement of arms of Robert Bruce, the Scottish king, associated with the history of Hartlepool, on the south elevation of the pedestal (both in line with the 1914 East Coast Raid tablet on the Lighthouse slope, when these were not, as can be confirmed, in either case the points at which they had in fact been constructed, providing something which requires a certain degree of consideration as to what this may be supposed to mean, if anything, in particular since the documentation in question is as mentioned included in copied form within the Council minutes dated 17 December 1921, it being a possibly significant fact in this context that these and other relevant governmental documents in the United Kingdom have, as from 2010 under the Open Government License, become more widely available for the use of and publication by interested parties than was previously the case).
The unveiling (together with a dedication by the Lord Bishop of Durham) some two years later on 11 October 1923 by the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Durham (in the person of his son as representing him in view of the fact that he was unable to be present himself) of the 'West Hartlepool War Memorial', the war memorial here immediately in question, with the inscription 'THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919', was of a memorial which held, as detailed, a 'platform' approached by 'five steps symbolizing the five years of the Great War'. This featured four rises within the 'platform' with a further first rise combining, architecturally, with the ground level, as this existed at the time the rise being at the eastern end at six inches/15.2 cm identical with the rises within the 'platform' but, at two inches/5 cm, not so at the western end, constituting a confirmation, when taken together with the description of the 'five steps' under the title 'The Monument Described' at p. 11 within the leaflet referred to in External Links under 'National Archives' and given certain other structural elements varying at each end within the 'platform' itself in the length from west to east, of the intended relationship of this monument through the various features of the 'platform' with the site of the former Parade Ground; the precise character of this relationship certainly is something which ninety years later remains to be established and possibly set out in a documentary form; it may be possible to demonstrate that what is in fact here in question historically is one element within the purposes of the German Empire with regard to both the first High Sea Fleet or Kaiserliche Marine
raid on Yarmouth which did not involve any bombardment of the coastland and the second raid which did, both having been carried out with the approval of Kaiser Wilhelm II, so far as it is possible for these raids to be understood as a German reaction to the blockading (early in November 1914 following the halting of the German offensive on the Western Front) of the North Sea by the Royal Navy, this being a theory which is as it seems confirmed by the references in the speech of Colonel Robson in relation to the 1914 Lighthouse slope tablet as unveiled by himself at the time of the unveiling of the (East) Hartlepool War Memorial, 17 December 1921 as this was reported in the press and later included within the Council minutes of Hartlepool Borough Council, these being references which although with no specific reference to the blockade of the North Sea by the Royal Navy in the form of a declaration of the North Sea as a war zone on 1 November 1914 include one to the German raid on Yarmouth which followed the blockade, or declaration of the North Sea as a war zone, two days later on the 3rd of that month and to the fact that the German shells in that first raid fell in the sea and not on the land, with a First World War memorial dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Durham in February 1921 (who later in October 1923 dedicated the West Hartlepool War Memorial) and unveiled by Colonel Robson (who had later in November the same year unveiled the tablet to the first soldiers to die on British soil at the Coastal Defence Unit) on a coastal site (The Green in Seaton Carew) was within the same area in the sense of containing a coastal defence battery manned by the Royal Garrison Artillery, modest in its structure architecturally, but being in the form of a Victoria Cross
not modest by heraldic implication, lying at a distance to the south-west (as measured from the Redheugh monument or from the nearby tablets on the Promenade) of exactly two nautical miles (formerly known as the 'Admiralty' mile) across Hartlepool Bay (that is from coast to coast, the nautical mile
in question being equal to 1853m), there being a possible implied reference to the message In Hoc Signo Vinces
, 'Under this sign conquer', as seen in AD 312 in Greek together with a visionary cross by the Emperor Constantine I before his battle with Maxentius (q.v. labarum
in relation to the Roman Empire and, regarding the following developments within the European continent, heraldic flag
, a particular form of symbolism which is now extended in a more political and national fashion throughout the world as currently reflected in particular within the grounds of the post-second world war United Nations
building in New York, successor to what was created by post first world war world wide treaty obligations to which the United States refused eventually to commit itself and which did not include Communist powers, known as the League of Nations
with its headquarters in Switzerland, Europe); it would be naive to suppose that it is simply the result of coincidence that (it being arguably implied in various ways within this particular memorial of date 1923 as also within the other originally entitled 'Hartlepool War Memorial' of date 1921 and in particular within the Scottish National War Memorial by the Scottish architect Lorimer, 1927) it happens to occur as an inscription in the Welsh National War Memorial
by another Scottish architect, Sir Ninian Comper (probably the last constructed major memorial within the British Empire after the First World War, its date being 1928), with all of these matters being quite clearly related, in terms of architecture, to the form of the British flag (the "Union Jack") even if it seems that this clearly nationally implied subject matter has never at any time been expressly stated or even recognized at all by the interested parties (which must perhaps, although this is of course debatable in legal terms, be held to include the more governmentally responsible officers of Great Britain, national or local).
To return to the memorial dated 1914 on the Headland (according to public documents entitled 'Triumphant Youth') these three crosses, in different forms (as historical achievements of arms rather than present-day flags, but clearly related to the flags) are indeed the designs included within two of the four cartouches on the (historic) Hartlepool War Memorial (with a possible relationship to the sword held by a male winged figure in the Welsh National War Memorial
, being a sword in the form as incorporated into a Latin cross within the cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Commission), the figure in the 'Hartlepool War Memorial', as originally named, being described as 'Triumphant Youth' in public documents (council minutes) and in the local press; these perhaps arguably related elements may be considered together with a memorial containing a Greek cross within a wreath in Seaton Carew (this being, not presumably by any coincidence, in a form related to that of the 19th Cent. military medal, the Victoria Cross
, this form of cross being directly involved in the history of these matters as a result of the participation of one hundred of those who had won it in the burial of the British Unknown Warrior within Westminster Abbey in 1920, a grave originally below a Union Flag which flag was after the Second World War moved elsewhere within the Abbey).
Being in its architectural form in effect identical to that of the north, the southern elevation contains (within the area of the pedestal identical with that on the north side) the words "THINE O LORD / IS THE VICTORY" surmounted by a cross.
Now the history of this matter has not at this date early in the 21st Cent. been, it seems, the subject of any particular attention, at least in written form, this being perhaps the result of the fact that it is considered to be nothing but a matter of what is implied, or may be implied, and something which is consequently debatable (as is now suggested elsewhere in this article it may however be confirmed in the form of acceptable evidence such as maps and public documents in addition to the architectural character of the memorials themselves and in relation to the history of Europe as a whole and it has, also, been dealt with, or an attempt has been made to deal with it, by the Council of Europe at a European level). The immediate issue in the present case is the choice of the inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' (from the Old Testament, but shown within the monument by Coombs summounted by a Latin cross). This design evidently relates to a 'square' previously (1919) locally named 'Victory Square' or 'Place' by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee and also specified in a particular form so far as its dimensions were concerned, being located alongside 'Victoria Road' and within what previously had been a Parade Ground or 'Armoury Field', this 'square' or 'place' to be used itself as a 'permanent' (sic) memorial together with some form of monument or tablet as decided upon by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee (not a Council committee) itself. The particular designs of the architect Coombs (together with a national landscape architect in relation to this 'square' as it was named although it was not in fact architecturally a square) in the proportions already decided upon were (at least in principle) adopted by the War Memorial Committee as a result of the choice of these designs within a competition adjudicated upon in 1921 at a national level as recorded that year in both the national magazine The Builder and in the local press (Northern Daily Mail). The land was however to be handed over as a gift to the local authority, the West Hartlepool Council, and it seems that they (either the officers or the councillors or both) requested from the War Memorial Committee a different design if not different dimensions of the area formerly within a Parade Ground which was still to be called 'Victory Square' and that this was duly provided (this was not the only example of this sort of direct involvement of government in the design chosen by a memorial Committee in principle separate from the government itself, the same event occurred, with considerable objections by the War Memorial Committee, in Berwick-upon-Tweed
and possibly elsewhere). It is in any event clear that the relationship of this inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' is with both the inscription on the frieze in the 1871 Royal Albert Hall
(where within the frieze it may be held to relate to the Union Jack above the north entrance) and with the fact that later, in November 1927, the Royal Albert Hall itself was capable of being associated, through maps or otherwise, with war memorials in general and in particular with the Scottish National War Memorial at the highest point of Edinburgh Castle
adjacent to Palace (later 'Crown') Square, dated 1914 to 1918, and opened on 14 July 1927 by the Prince of Wales who had previously opened another perhaps relevant war memorial entitled 'The Response 1914' in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Both Coombs (the architect who designed the monument within the previously determined 'Victory Square or Place' in West Hartlepool opened in 1923) and Bennison (sculptor and architect within Redheugh Gardens in historic Hartlepool of two separate memorial elements within the Gardens, one in the central section and one on the boundary wall, both opened in 1921, the Gardens including the boundary wall being as laid out at the time of the construction of the coastal Promenade at the beginning of the 19th Cent. in a form that related to it in the Ordnance Survey plans in a number of ways as indicated here in outline, with the Bennison and other memorials following exactly the same procedure after the war) were members of the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, London and Bennison (Coombs himself having died earlier in 1921) presumably attended the first remembrance ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1927.
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
in Hartlepool
Hartlepool
Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
which is dedicated to, and in honour of, both the living and the dead from the town of West Hartlepool
West Hartlepool
This article refers to the place; for the Rugby Football Club see West Hartlepool R.F.C.West Hartlepool refers to the western part of the what has since the 1960s been known as the borough of Hartlepool in North East England...
in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
West Hartlepool was amalgamated with Hartlepool in the 1960s.
The memorial (including a monument in the form of granite obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
on a pedestal rising from a platform) is located at what is still called 'Victory Square' off Victoria Road, in the town centre of what is known since the 1960s as 'Hartlepool' and (from the same date) is occupied, in part, by the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre
Middleton Grange Shopping Centre
Middleton Grange is a shopping centre in Hartlepool, England. It was built in 1969 and it was opened by Princess Anne on 27th May 1970. The site of the shopping centre was originally terraced streets until most of them were bombed during World War II....
. 'Victory Square' (as a war memorial, and as defined within a public document in 1923) was however, in that year (1923), in its original form as a memorial, constructed as determined in 1919 by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee itself on the Territorial Force Parade Ground adjacent to Victoria Road.
The site of this memorial, with as a leading inscription 'The Great War 1914-1919' on the pedestal of the obelisk at the time of the unveiling and including a 'platform' with five steps described as 'symbolizing the five years of the Great War' (description in the leaflet as referred to below, 'External Links') was historically within the area of a Parade Ground to the south of a highway originally named 'Cambridge Road' and renamed 'Victoria Road' on the occasion of the 1897 Diamond Jubilee.
The area is shown on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey (OS) plans dated 1897 and 1919 of the Victorian new town known as 'West' Hartlepool (or together with the historic Hartlepool the 'Hartlepools') where it is named 'Parade Ground'. Within this 'Parade Ground', also known locally as 'Armoury Field', is a building named the 'Armoury', this being occupied from c. 1870 by military units within the body set up in the 19th Century and known from 1907 at the time of the unveiling as the 'Territorial Force' ('TF'), currently entitled in England and Scotland the 'Territorial Army' (see Reserve Forces and Cadets Association).
It seems that before the recorded involvement by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee of any artists or architects the area if not the design of the war memorial site was almost exactly predetermined by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee with or without consultation with the local TF but almost certainly with such consultation given that the site as eventually laid out involved the partial demolition of their 19th Cent. Armoury possessing on OS plans a particular relationship, together with the Parade Ground itself, to the road known from 1897 as 'Victoria Road', this War Memorial Committee itself having been created both by popular support and by the intention of the West Hartlepool Borough Council with a view to creating what is described in a public document, the Council minutes, as a 'permanent memorial' for West Hartlepool, being a memorial which eventually included another element that also extended to Hartlepool as currently recorded by the Charity Commission under 'Hartlepool War Memorial and Crosby Homes', previously 'Hartlepools' (minutes of the Peace Committee, April 1919).
As recorded in the press (report of meeting of the Committee in the Northern Daily Mail on 15 May 1919 in the form of a suggestion by Ald. Macfarlane that what should be done was to 'purchase the Armoury Field, widen out a width three or four times Victoria-road, and call it Victory Place or Square') the area and location of the site as a memorial were suggested in the first instance by this 'Alderman' (or senior council member) of West Hartlepool Borough Council, which Alderman here again used the word 'permanent' without referring to any of the legal issues relating to permanent or perpetual occupation of land under English law of which he was probably nonetheless aware (namely the requirement if this is to be made possible and legally binding of the setting up of a charitable or public purpose trust under the control of equitable jurisdiction distinct from 'common', 'statutory' or 'case' law).
The design of the monument within the site to be named 'Victory Place or Square or some other appropriate name' (described as in itself a memorial) was it seems (and as reported in both the national architectural journal The Builder and the local press in September of that year) almost entirely separate from and independent of either the Committee or the Council as such, being the result of a competition adjudicated upon in 1921 by a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects under procedures relating to the design of war memorials (which were it seems fairly general at the time throughout Britain and as recorded in The Builder without of course being in any way obligatory, this leading to them being disregarded by numerous War Memorial Committees in the name of independence) the memorial in this case having been, in its relation to the existing architecture, already decided upon, this being therefore a precondition of any architect's proposal of design in the competition.
It (the architect's monument and platform) was unveiled and dedicated together with the 'Square' two years later on 11 October 1923 the twenty fourth anniversary of the declaration of the Second South African (Boer) War in 1899 (whether by coincidence or otherwise).
It was unveiled on his father's behalf by the son of the Lord Lieutenant
Lord Lieutenant
The title Lord Lieutenant is given to the British monarch's personal representatives in the United Kingdom, usually in a county or similar circumscription, with varying tasks throughout history. Usually a retired local notable, senior military officer, peer or business person is given the post...
of County Durham, the Earl of Durham, and was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Durham (East and West Hartlepool being historically,
and at still that time, within County Durham and the county Lord Lieutenant or 'Lord-Lieutenant' being constitutionally the ex-officio president of the County Durham units of the TF and as that person acting on behalf of the King or Queen as the Head of the Armed Forces, at the time King George V, with the text on the north elevation of the Monument based on the message sent by the King-Emperor after the First World War to the next of kin of the casualties of the British Empire as recorded in the Imperial War Museum in London, this having been apparently the most widely circulated document that was ever issued).
Having previously provided, upon this occasion, a formal escort in the parade from Church Square for, in particular, the son of the Lord Lieutenant, himself a Captain, and as such unveiling the memorial, men of the Royal Garrison Artillery ('RGA') are shown on the plan entitled Plan showing the Site of the Memorial and Positions to be taken up by the several Bodies Assembling as having lined up on a section of the Square under the title GUARD OF HONOUR together with a total of eleven other groups or parties including the clergy, a band and choir and military buglers, with 'Section 1' entitled DISABLED EX SERVICE MEN & SERVICE VETERANS and an unnumbered section entitled 'PLATFORM' (next to the 'platform' as described within the text under THE MONUMENT DESCRIBED in the leaflet entitled West Hartlepool War Memorial 1914-1919 - Unveiling & Dedication - Thursday, 11th October, 1923, p. 11, this being a plan which can be held - upon due consideration of its scale, 1 inch to 92 feet, and its character as a plan - to have been intended as a vital source of information so far as both the character of the war memorial - with regard in particular to the relationship between the monument and the platform as described on p. 11 and the war memorial site - and the intended significance of the ceremonies held on 11 October 1923 are concerned); today (ninety years and another world war later) it seems these issues, together with their relationship to history, continue officially in question.
The 'East Coast' Raid upon the 'Hartlepools' opened at first light on 16 December 1914 with a fifteen-minute bombardment of the Hartlepool Coastal Defence Unit or 'battery' by all three German High Sea Fleet battleships involved in this section of this three-part raid which included a separate raid on Whitby and a joint raid on Scarborough. Historically, this section of the army (the RGA) were the armed forces which at the time (1914), together with the Durham Light Infantry, occupied the Armoury and manned batteries both in the 'Hartlepools' and at other coastguard stations throughout the British Isles (including perhaps Scarborough, where it seems possible that there was in fact a battery that was at the time of the raid unmanned. This raid led to the death of the first soldiers to die in British soil as a result of enemy action and was on the documentary evidence considered a major disaster by everybody in Britain prepared to consider the matter in an unprejudiced way; the Admiralty in general wished to suppress its history so far as possible and if possible have it ignored altogether; however, Winston Churchill (at the time the United Kingdom First Lord of the Admiralty related to the person holding within the Admiralty the position of First Sea Lord
First Sea Lord
The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
) used the raid on the 'undefended' town Scarborough in a recruitment campaign with no reference to the raid on the Hartlepools (a defended port of the Royal Navy and consequently a German victory, their battleships having returned home with no British naval counter-attack which achieved any success even if there was a brief engagement, upon the approach of the German ships to the Hartlepools, with considerable courage in ships not of the same fighting category).
The principal feature of one section in historic (East) Hartlepool of a memorial designed by Philip Bennison is a statue which is described in the local press as a 'winged figure in bronze' representing 'Triumphant Youth' (Northern Daily Mail 17 December 1921 a copy of which is included within a public document, the minutes of Hartlepool Borough Council, December 1921, held at Teesside Archives), this being a statue in Redheugh Gardens upon a pedestal with four cartouches, two of them (northeast and southwest elevations) in the form of 'achievements of arms' with one of them (eastern elevation) showing what is perhaps the now removed Lighthouse Battery with the inscription FOR US THEY DIED and the date '1914' and another (western elevation) the historic coat of arms of the town Hartlepool, later transformed in a different fashion for the amalgamated local authorities under the same name, but already reflected in the arms of West Hartlepool.
Effectively the relationship between the 'Hartlepools' ('East' or historic Hartlepool and the Victorian new town) in respect of the 'Great War' (or 'First World War') exists historically in a number of ways apart from their common involvement in the East Coast Raid, but in particular in the form of the war memorials erected in both towns. Both were unveiled either by the Earl of Durham or by his son on his behalf. The unveiling by the Lord Lieutenant himself in Redheugh Gardens was followed by an unveiling by the Chairman of the (East) Hartlepool War Memorial Committee and his wife on the immediately adjacent Promenade (tablets dated 1914-1919 with the inscription TO THESE UNCONQUERED DEAD) and another unveiling by the Commanding Officer of the Coastal Defence Unit, Colonel Robson, of a war memorial tablet on the Lighthouse Slope somewhat further removed and in a different direction. This tablet is placed on the 'Lighthouse Slope' next to the Coastal Defence Unit batteries (the Heugh Battery and the Lighthouse Battery, the Heugh Battery with a Union Jack immediately adjacent to the tablet) and records the death of the first soldiers to die on British soil as a result of enemy action in the first raid on British soil since the creation of the United Kingdom in 1707, these matters being as reported in two articles by the press (Northern Daily Mail) apparently on the same day, 17 December 1921, seven years and one day after the raid, together with an illustration of both the 1914 memorial and the 1914-1919 tablets elsewhere on the Promenade within a separate article entitled HARTLEPOOL'S WAR MEMORIAL Unveiled by the Earl of Durham apparently by the sculptor Philip B Bennison, showing the tablets within Redheugh Gardens and the achievement of arms of Robert Bruce, the Scottish king, associated with the history of Hartlepool, on the south elevation of the pedestal (both in line with the 1914 East Coast Raid tablet on the Lighthouse slope, when these were not, as can be confirmed, in either case the points at which they had in fact been constructed, providing something which requires a certain degree of consideration as to what this may be supposed to mean, if anything, in particular since the documentation in question is as mentioned included in copied form within the Council minutes dated 17 December 1921, it being a possibly significant fact in this context that these and other relevant governmental documents in the United Kingdom have, as from 2010 under the Open Government License, become more widely available for the use of and publication by interested parties than was previously the case).
The unveiling (together with a dedication by the Lord Bishop of Durham) some two years later on 11 October 1923 by the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Durham (in the person of his son as representing him in view of the fact that he was unable to be present himself) of the 'West Hartlepool War Memorial', the war memorial here immediately in question, with the inscription 'THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919', was of a memorial which held, as detailed, a 'platform' approached by 'five steps symbolizing the five years of the Great War'. This featured four rises within the 'platform' with a further first rise combining, architecturally, with the ground level, as this existed at the time the rise being at the eastern end at six inches/15.2 cm identical with the rises within the 'platform' but, at two inches/5 cm, not so at the western end, constituting a confirmation, when taken together with the description of the 'five steps' under the title 'The Monument Described' at p. 11 within the leaflet referred to in External Links under 'National Archives' and given certain other structural elements varying at each end within the 'platform' itself in the length from west to east, of the intended relationship of this monument through the various features of the 'platform' with the site of the former Parade Ground; the precise character of this relationship certainly is something which ninety years later remains to be established and possibly set out in a documentary form; it may be possible to demonstrate that what is in fact here in question historically is one element within the purposes of the German Empire with regard to both the first High Sea Fleet or Kaiserliche Marine
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
raid on Yarmouth which did not involve any bombardment of the coastland and the second raid which did, both having been carried out with the approval of Kaiser Wilhelm II, so far as it is possible for these raids to be understood as a German reaction to the blockading (early in November 1914 following the halting of the German offensive on the Western Front) of the North Sea by the Royal Navy, this being a theory which is as it seems confirmed by the references in the speech of Colonel Robson in relation to the 1914 Lighthouse slope tablet as unveiled by himself at the time of the unveiling of the (East) Hartlepool War Memorial, 17 December 1921 as this was reported in the press and later included within the Council minutes of Hartlepool Borough Council, these being references which although with no specific reference to the blockade of the North Sea by the Royal Navy in the form of a declaration of the North Sea as a war zone on 1 November 1914 include one to the German raid on Yarmouth which followed the blockade, or declaration of the North Sea as a war zone, two days later on the 3rd of that month and to the fact that the German shells in that first raid fell in the sea and not on the land, with a First World War memorial dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Durham in February 1921 (who later in October 1923 dedicated the West Hartlepool War Memorial) and unveiled by Colonel Robson (who had later in November the same year unveiled the tablet to the first soldiers to die on British soil at the Coastal Defence Unit) on a coastal site (The Green in Seaton Carew) was within the same area in the sense of containing a coastal defence battery manned by the Royal Garrison Artillery, modest in its structure architecturally, but being in the form of a Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
not modest by heraldic implication, lying at a distance to the south-west (as measured from the Redheugh monument or from the nearby tablets on the Promenade) of exactly two nautical miles (formerly known as the 'Admiralty' mile) across Hartlepool Bay (that is from coast to coast, the nautical mile
Nautical mile
The nautical mile is a unit of length that is about one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian, but is approximately one minute of arc of longitude only at the equator...
in question being equal to 1853m), there being a possible implied reference to the message In Hoc Signo Vinces
In hoc signo vinces
In hoc signo vinces is a Latin rendering of the Greek phrase "" en touto nika, and means "in this sign you will conquer"....
, 'Under this sign conquer', as seen in AD 312 in Greek together with a visionary cross by the Emperor Constantine I before his battle with Maxentius (q.v. labarum
Labarum
The labarum was a vexillum that displayed the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧, formed from the first two Greek letters of the word "Christ" — Chi and Rho . It was used by the Roman emperor Constantine I...
in relation to the Roman Empire and, regarding the following developments within the European continent, heraldic flag
Heraldic flag
In heraldry and vexillology, an heraldic flag is any of several types of flags, containing coats of arms, heraldic badges, or other devices, used for personal identification....
, a particular form of symbolism which is now extended in a more political and national fashion throughout the world as currently reflected in particular within the grounds of the post-second world war United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
building in New York, successor to what was created by post first world war world wide treaty obligations to which the United States refused eventually to commit itself and which did not include Communist powers, known as the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
with its headquarters in Switzerland, Europe); it would be naive to suppose that it is simply the result of coincidence that (it being arguably implied in various ways within this particular memorial of date 1923 as also within the other originally entitled 'Hartlepool War Memorial' of date 1921 and in particular within the Scottish National War Memorial by the Scottish architect Lorimer, 1927) it happens to occur as an inscription in the Welsh National War Memorial
Welsh National War Memorial
The Welsh National War Memorial is situated in Alexandra Gardens, Cathays Park, Cardiff. The memorial was designed by Sir Ninian Comper and unveiled in June 1928 by the Prince of Wales...
by another Scottish architect, Sir Ninian Comper (probably the last constructed major memorial within the British Empire after the First World War, its date being 1928), with all of these matters being quite clearly related, in terms of architecture, to the form of the British flag (the "Union Jack") even if it seems that this clearly nationally implied subject matter has never at any time been expressly stated or even recognized at all by the interested parties (which must perhaps, although this is of course debatable in legal terms, be held to include the more governmentally responsible officers of Great Britain, national or local).
To return to the memorial dated 1914 on the Headland (according to public documents entitled 'Triumphant Youth') these three crosses, in different forms (as historical achievements of arms rather than present-day flags, but clearly related to the flags) are indeed the designs included within two of the four cartouches on the (historic) Hartlepool War Memorial (with a possible relationship to the sword held by a male winged figure in the Welsh National War Memorial
Welsh National War Memorial
The Welsh National War Memorial is situated in Alexandra Gardens, Cathays Park, Cardiff. The memorial was designed by Sir Ninian Comper and unveiled in June 1928 by the Prince of Wales...
, being a sword in the form as incorporated into a Latin cross within the cemeteries of the Commonwealth War Commission), the figure in the 'Hartlepool War Memorial', as originally named, being described as 'Triumphant Youth' in public documents (council minutes) and in the local press; these perhaps arguably related elements may be considered together with a memorial containing a Greek cross within a wreath in Seaton Carew (this being, not presumably by any coincidence, in a form related to that of the 19th Cent. military medal, the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, this form of cross being directly involved in the history of these matters as a result of the participation of one hundred of those who had won it in the burial of the British Unknown Warrior within Westminster Abbey in 1920, a grave originally below a Union Flag which flag was after the Second World War moved elsewhere within the Abbey).
Inscriptions
The north elevation bears the arms of West Hartlepool within a wreath, with the inscription deriving from the message of King George V to the next of kin of the dead of the British Empire, "In grateful remembrance of the men of this town who at their country's call left all that was dear to them to hazard their lives that others might live in freedom. Their name liveth for evermore."Being in its architectural form in effect identical to that of the north, the southern elevation contains (within the area of the pedestal identical with that on the north side) the words "THINE O LORD / IS THE VICTORY" surmounted by a cross.
Now the history of this matter has not at this date early in the 21st Cent. been, it seems, the subject of any particular attention, at least in written form, this being perhaps the result of the fact that it is considered to be nothing but a matter of what is implied, or may be implied, and something which is consequently debatable (as is now suggested elsewhere in this article it may however be confirmed in the form of acceptable evidence such as maps and public documents in addition to the architectural character of the memorials themselves and in relation to the history of Europe as a whole and it has, also, been dealt with, or an attempt has been made to deal with it, by the Council of Europe at a European level). The immediate issue in the present case is the choice of the inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' (from the Old Testament, but shown within the monument by Coombs summounted by a Latin cross). This design evidently relates to a 'square' previously (1919) locally named 'Victory Square' or 'Place' by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee and also specified in a particular form so far as its dimensions were concerned, being located alongside 'Victoria Road' and within what previously had been a Parade Ground or 'Armoury Field', this 'square' or 'place' to be used itself as a 'permanent' (sic) memorial together with some form of monument or tablet as decided upon by the West Hartlepool War Memorial Committee (not a Council committee) itself. The particular designs of the architect Coombs (together with a national landscape architect in relation to this 'square' as it was named although it was not in fact architecturally a square) in the proportions already decided upon were (at least in principle) adopted by the War Memorial Committee as a result of the choice of these designs within a competition adjudicated upon in 1921 at a national level as recorded that year in both the national magazine The Builder and in the local press (Northern Daily Mail). The land was however to be handed over as a gift to the local authority, the West Hartlepool Council, and it seems that they (either the officers or the councillors or both) requested from the War Memorial Committee a different design if not different dimensions of the area formerly within a Parade Ground which was still to be called 'Victory Square' and that this was duly provided (this was not the only example of this sort of direct involvement of government in the design chosen by a memorial Committee in principle separate from the government itself, the same event occurred, with considerable objections by the War Memorial Committee, in Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
and possibly elsewhere). It is in any event clear that the relationship of this inscription 'Thine O Lord is the Victory' is with both the inscription on the frieze in the 1871 Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
(where within the frieze it may be held to relate to the Union Jack above the north entrance) and with the fact that later, in November 1927, the Royal Albert Hall itself was capable of being associated, through maps or otherwise, with war memorials in general and in particular with the Scottish National War Memorial at the highest point of Edinburgh Castle
Scottish National War Memorial
The Scottish National War Memorial is located in Edinburgh Castle, and commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those serving with Scottish regiments, who died in the two world wars and in more recent conflicts. The monument was formally opened in 1927...
adjacent to Palace (later 'Crown') Square, dated 1914 to 1918, and opened on 14 July 1927 by the Prince of Wales who had previously opened another perhaps relevant war memorial entitled 'The Response 1914' in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Both Coombs (the architect who designed the monument within the previously determined 'Victory Square or Place' in West Hartlepool opened in 1923) and Bennison (sculptor and architect within Redheugh Gardens in historic Hartlepool of two separate memorial elements within the Gardens, one in the central section and one on the boundary wall, both opened in 1921, the Gardens including the boundary wall being as laid out at the time of the construction of the coastal Promenade at the beginning of the 19th Cent. in a form that related to it in the Ordnance Survey plans in a number of ways as indicated here in outline, with the Bennison and other memorials following exactly the same procedure after the war) were members of the Royal College of Art in South Kensington, London and Bennison (Coombs himself having died earlier in 1921) presumably attended the first remembrance ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in November 1927.
External links
- The 'Hartlepools' (Hartlepool and West Hartlepool) - a reproduction of plan 103 NE from the Ordnance SurveyOrdnance SurveyOrdnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
'First Series' (dated 1863, but not in point of fact the beginning of the OS) here described as at '1:63360' but with these plans (63360 being the number of inches to a statute mile) at the time, and until recently, known as 'one inch to a mile', with the 1:2500 scale, also used by the OS as from the 1850s described as 'approximately twenty five inches to the mile' (it being the case that the metric scale in question is not exactly equal to this Imperial measure equivalent). This site provides an historic plan of the 'Hartlepools' together with a late 19th Cent. railway line from the south and a port, both being separate and also distinct in administration from those of historic Hartlepool and therefore separately authorized, under the national government, with the later creation and authorization of a separate town, 'West' Hartlepool, making what was later referred to as the 'Hartlepools' until amalgamation of the two under local government administration in the 1960s. Returning to the issue of plans, on a national scale, and with references to the scale of 1:63360 as a scale of one inch to a mile, the National Library of Scotland, under 'Triangulation and Battle of the Scales', gives details of the decisions taken with regard to OS scales throughout the UK at this period of time, together with a complete history of the Ordnance Survey body which (as one within the War Office) commenced historically in Scotland in the 18th Century. - Exhibition at Cambridge Library on the history of the Ordnance Survey gives credible details, arguably extremely relevant to OS recording within the 'Hartlepools' and its apparent relationship to other OS plans elsewhere, relating to the famous 19th Cent. United Kingdom 'Battle of the Scales' and the ultimate effective conversion, in 1935, by an investigative committee under the chairmanship of Sir John Davidson, to exclusively metric scales, which innovation introduced the present metric National Grid, and included in particular a move from the 'conventionally printed paper maps and into the world of digital databases and on-demand printing'; while this is by any standards a credible and relevant article, no comment seems to be made on what is here directly in question, the possible significance of the relationship between the two scales, metric and imperial, within, in particular and in the present and other cases including central London, the scale 1:2,500 (which metric scale was used for 'cultivated rural areas' as well as for London and the two towns, the 'Hartlepools'); a controversial issue which is historically if not in practical form arguably extremely significant. An historically minded architect, Jeroen Geurst, in a remarkably (this, as ever, arguably from a purely Western point of view) comprehensive and illustrated book entitled Cemeteries of the Great War by Sir Edwin Lutyens (published with the financial support of the Netherlands Architecture Fund, in 2010, by 010 Publishers, Rotterdam) apparently (if without citing sources) makes clear that of the three principal architectural elements within the British Empire version of the cemeteries created by both the British Empire and the French (this being of course the eventual result of a joint military decision taken in in the third year of the war, 1916, together with another joint decision, the creation of an 'Unknown Warrior' grave and architecture, in Britain within Westminster Cathedral) one (the presumably innovatively entitled Cross of SacrificeCross of SacrificeThe Cross of Sacrifice was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission and is usually present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or more graves. It is normally a freestanding four point limestone Latin cross in one of three sizes ranging in height from 18 to...
in the form of the 'Latin' cross which architectural format was also used, according to the Dictionary of Architecture by James Stevens Curl, as the basic ground format for many Western European cruciform or cross-shaped church-plans as from the Romanesque period, i.e. the 11th and 12th centuries) was specified in Imperial dimensions, but another (equally if not more significant in every sense and equally or better known as being found throughout the United Kingdom itself, in its particular architectural sense as an element relating to a grave, the 'headstone', with both the headstones and a Cross of SacrificeCross of SacrificeThe Cross of Sacrifice was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission and is usually present in Commonwealth war cemeteries containing 40 or more graves. It is normally a freestanding four point limestone Latin cross in one of three sizes ranging in height from 18 to...
having been included within what was known as 'West' Hartlepool at the time at the entrance to a local cemetery) was detailed likewise, and possibly more exactly, in the metric scale, originally with height and breadth at the scale 1:2, the height being later increased by 5 cm but with the depth remaining at one tenth of the original height as planned, 76 cm. The author cited, Jeroen Geurst, provides no personal explanation for these astonishing facts as confirmed on pp. 46 and 96 of his book; these were, given the 19th Century ‘Battle of the Scales’ as herein referred to, possibly also controversial at the time and they are, as indicated, currently still dealt with apparently at Cambridge University and possibly elsewhere; the question surely remains whether this was perhaps one of the elements that led the author Geurst (as a European architect) to write this book? This will probably remain, together with other issues that are here raised, for the time being (we are now in the early 21st Century) an open question, relating as it does to the decisions of the (British) Imperial War Graves Commission itself (decisions which were, it seems, according to some of the more or less official later accounts by authors in English, somewhat controversial in many ways other than those mentioned, even if they were generally accepted as governmental policy and were, by an uncertain number amongst the immediately affected public, approved, on the grounds of it being arguably the case that they related in an admittedly as yet unclarified fashion not simply to the war but, within the British Empire, to the 19th Cent., the Queen-Empress Victoria and her Prince-Consort who gave his name to the Royal Albert HallRoyal Albert HallThe Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
, London, as ultimately used by the Royal British Legion for purposes of the 'Armistice Day' which, having a somewhat different purpose after the Second World War, was recently renamed 'Remembrance SundayRemembrance SundayIn the United Kingdom, 'Remembrance Sunday' is held on the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday nearest to 11 November Armistice Day. It is the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11 a.m...
' and given a new calendar day, based on the Sunday in November as relating to Armistice Day, with this historic ceremonial at the Royal Albert Hall still being held on the particular Saturday which, as from the origin, was so based, but with the original arguably intended connection with the French and European history of 14 July as detailed in the governmental http://www.garnison-paris.terre.defense.gouv.fr/14juillet2008/les-coulisses/historique-du-defile.htm having been thereby perhaps unfortunately from the point of view of both British and European history intentionally or otherwise lost or anyway disregarded, the element of history particularly in question being the nature of the association of the Western allies in connection with 14 July ceremonies in France as from 1916 terminating with the final decision arrived at by the Inter-Allied Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919 which has, if reversed for a few years by the German occupants in the Second World War, in effect continued in France itself from that date to now, its particular historical relationship with the London 'Peace Parade' five days later, arguably evidently intended to be associated with the Inter-Allied Versailles Peace Conference and other historical elements, apparently now receiving little attention, the date having been forgotten almost completely and the only available information within this website being assorted articles as found when a search is made for 1919 London Victory (sic) Parade notwithstanding that what is arguably the essential element of the war memorialScottish National War MemorialThe Scottish National War Memorial is located in Edinburgh Castle, and commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those serving with Scottish regiments, who died in the two world wars and in more recent conflicts. The monument was formally opened in 1927...
opened on 14 July 1927 is the relationship of the particular artwork entitled 'Reveille' or 'The Cross Triumphant and the End of War' with this same Lorimer war memorial in general and the earlier 1919 London parade officially entitled 'Peace' Parade held exactly forty-nine years after the declaration of war by France on Prussia, the German flag at the time of the First World War carrying the inscription Gott Mit Uns 1870Gott Mit UnsGott mit uns is a phrase commonly associated with the German military from the German Empire to the end of the Third Reich, although its historical origins are far older, ultimately tracing back to the Hebrew term Immanuel from the Bible...
, God With Us 1870, together with the soldiers of the Second German Empire themselves on their military uniforms, the in historical terms essentially relevant element so far as Western Europe was concerned being therefore quite evidently the extraordinary history of Alsace-LorraineAlsace-LorraineThe Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
as from the time of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans, the occupation of Versailles by the Germans in 1871 leading to the creation of the "Second German Empire" and some fifty years later in 1918 to the terms of the 14 November armistice and the proceedings of the Versailles Peace Conference which commenced in that year, together with, in the following year, those of the Versailles Peace Treaty, none of which earlier historical events had it seems before this 'first' world war been relevant to Britain and its Empire in any way whatsoever other than by virtue of its own claim implied in the form of its 'Union Jack' flag as created upon the unification of the two monarchies, England and Scotland, to 'God with us', already traditional within Europe in various forms as from conversion to Christianity and the empires, east and west, this same element, the connection of the Union Jack with this history, being evidently connected with the layout of the Hartlepool promenade in the early 20th Cent. and consequently likewise with the 1914 East Coast Raid, and consequently also with design of the West Hartlepool War Memorial 1914-1919, the Hartlepool War Memorial 1914 on the coast, and other First World War Memorials of a related national significance, even they do not at least for the time being happen to be officially recognized as such, throughout the UK). - Ordnance Survey plan undated on www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk website (with listed building records as licensee under English Heritage and plans as licensee of Ordnance Survey 'OS OpenSpace', s.v. 'War Memorial in Victory Square') of the site 'Victory Square', here left unnamed. The original published OS plan, here undated, was evidently made after construction of Middleton Grange Shopping Centre (1960s) and Hartlepool Borough Council Civic Centre (1970s); it is here without either a scale or any indication whatsoever (in this section of the article on the war memorial) of the 'platform' described in the listed building, by English Heritage, as terrace this being correct in the architectural sense but not corresponding to the contemporary document which refers under 'The Monument Described' to platform (the dimensions of which - including the steps as both illustrated and in slightly different forms textually detailed in the magazine The Builder as held at the RIBA library and in the local press as held at Hartlepool Central Library in September 1921 and in the 1923 leaflet relating to the unveiling and dedication but not by English Heritage - are 77 feet/23.5m long by 42.5 feet/13m wide, with in each case 8 feet/2.4m corresponding to the treads of the steps). What is apparently an aerial photographic view currently provides this information on 'Bing Map/Birds Eye View; at the same time it appears to illustrate a particular form of relationship between Victoria Road and the site which did not exist before the creation of ornamental structures on the road by the Council itself combined with others within the 'square'. While these may perhaps be found useful as clarifying the present conditions of the site neither section includes any indication whatsoever of the original relationship, significant or otherwise, between the width of Victoria Road and the distance from that road to the northern entrance to the Armoury as shown on the OS plans, or of the sections of the original boundary wall and railings of the Memorial as these in part remained present after the construction of the Shopping Centre on the Victory Square site, with one section still remaining. The basic understandable justification for the character of this website possibly remains this: that in view of the English Heritage definition itself (as quoted on the same website and which does not identify the Square as the site of the Memorial) the presumption nonetheless has to be that (until earlier public documents are taken into account, which may demonstrate the contrary in the form of acceptable evidence, these being documents to which no reference is made by English Heritage, but which are now referred to in part below in relation to National Archives catalogue and Teesside Archives with the title 'site of West Hartlepool War Memorial' itself indicating the inclusion of the site in the Memorial) this is indeed the 'precise identification' or description of both 'open space' and Monument and 'terrace' and therefore of the 'West Hartlepool War Memorial' or 'War Memorial in Victory Square'. Two of the relevant documents being publicly available in their original form at the archives as indicated below, for details of what is, as from 2010, their possible availability, together with that of the historic OS maps, see Open Data in the United KingdomOpen Data in the United KingdomThere have been campaigns in the UK for its government to open up the large amounts of data it has for greater public usage without prohibitively large fees...
). - Alan Godfrey Maps including two OS plans available by order on the website, one under West Hartlepool 1914 and one under Hartlepool 1914, both at a scale of approximately 1:4340 or 15 inches to a mile, being accurate copies, if at a different scale, of the historically relevant OS plans at the scale 1:2500 (approximately 25 inches to one mile), at which original scale one inch is equal to both three times the width of the 19th Cent. Armoury building (as shown on the 1919 OS plans within the area marked as 'Parade Ground' to the south of Victoria Road) and three times the length of the 1923 West Hartlepool War Memorial terrace or 'platform' (the length of the platform being as detailed on p. 11 of the leaflet relating to unveiling and dedication of the memorial in 1923 under the title The Monument Described, this width or length of 69 feet/21m measuring one third of an inch/8.5mm at the scale 1:2500 or 0.2"/4.9mm at the scale 1:4340 with 69.4 yards/63.5m therefore measuring exactly one inch/25.4mm at 1:2500 or 0.58"/14.6mm at 1:4340).
- http://www.rahbarnes.demon.co.uk/Union/UnionWithEnglandAct.htm is a presumably complete and correct edition of the text of the 1707 Act of Union as enacted within Scotland with section XVII confirming the adoption of the weights and measures as defined in England and http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/metric_system.html provides a general history of the 'metric' system established in its final form within revolutionary (18th Cent.) France while based upon previous developments within Europe, the name deriving from Greek 'metron' ('measure').
- Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) is a website providing full details of RGA coastal defence units within the British Isles in August 1914 four months before the East Coast Raid on the Hartlepools, Scarborough and Whitby in December that year. The RGA coastal defences units were at that time (1914) known as either TF 'Coys' (military companies) or as 'Heavy Batteries' and it was these units which constituted the 'North Eastern Coastal Defence' of the TF, with offices at Durham, Tynemouth and East Riding, there being other divisions elsewhere on the coast. Within Durham County (the 'Hartlepools' being at the time within that County) it seems that the Head Quarters of the RGA in that year, 1914, were stationed at the Armoury, West Hartlepool (that is in the Armoury on the Parade Ground later in 1923 in the northern section the memorial site 'Victory Square'), see Great War Forum at #5, with information provided four years ago in 2006 by a Major-General and based on the 'Army List 1910' (an 'Army List' which can it seems at the present date, 2010, be downloaded for that year, 1910, and for other years elsewhere on the Internet).
- Royal Garrison Artillery gives personal details of a number of the RGA military serving at the Coastal Defence Unit (Heugh Battery and Lighthouse Battery) in 1914, amongst whom Acting Bombardier JJ Hope MM is named, having been the first soldier to be awarded the Military MedalMilitary MedalThe Military Medal was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other services, and formerly also to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land....
created in 1916 (see also http://medals.nzdf.mil.nz/category/i/i21.html). - War Memorials Trust With what would seem to be some identical purposes to this particular charity is the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, UKNIWM within the Imperial War Museum in London, this (the IWM) being a Museum likewise originally created after the First World War under the provisions of equitable legislation together with governmental involvement extending over a long period of time and in various governmental departments, at present in 2011 (and presumably now permanently) the Ministry of Justice which provides access to a pdf file, here quoted, first prepared by a department that no longer exists (the 'Department for Constitutional Affairs'). It is suggested that there is a clear reference, both architectural and historical, within the governmentally created Scottish National War Memorial to the commitment of the British monarchy to the concept of war and peace and its consequent relationship with those who died in war, this being confirmed by particular architectural relationships with memorials within England, including in particular the (likewise governmental) Whitehall CenotaphCenotaphA cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
(first created, in a timber form which was destroyed by a German air raid in the Second World War upon the site of its subsequent location in London), those in the 'Hartlepools' here in outline described, the MiddlesbroughMiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
memorial, that in Berwick-upon-TweedBerwick-upon-TweedBerwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
as originally intended (this memorial was not in the event created in the form proposed by the War Memorial Committee) and the particular form and orientation of the memorial in Newcastle-upon-Tyne; thus it is arguably no coincidence that it should be the case, verifiable in the form of documents and the architecture that still exists, that the West Hartlepool War Memorial here in question was dedicated in October 1923 to both the living and the dead, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne memorial entitled the 'Response 1914' here mentioned was created by a person whose sons returned home, was unveiled in July 1923, and shows those at the time alive but marching to the north when, in 1915, it happens that they in fact marched to the south, and the Scottish National War Memorial opened on 14 July 1927, anniversary of the Paris Victory Parade with its French cenotaph, commemorates the dead but shows them, in the shrine, and with one single exception of a dying soldier at the central point, before their death in a frieze to east and west representing the different ranks and units marching north, nor, it is suggested, should the further possibility of a relationship of these features with memorials erected elsewhere in Europe (that is in addition to Paris) be ruled out. - National Archives The Internet 'Find' (Ctrl + F) can be used to locate 'Item no. 199' and 'WDB 76/199' for confirmation of a document by Mawson and Partners entitled "Site of the West Hartlepool War Memorial" held at Kendal Record Office in Kendal, Cumbria, and held together with a copy of the leaflet relating to the October 1923 unveiling and dedication published in West Hartlepool where the site is referred to as 'Victory Square' in relation to the Monument twice within the text and which also includes a plan in illustration this being of an original format but, in common with the Mawson plan, not named 'Victory' Square this 'square' never having been a 'square' in an architectural sense, while possessing that character (as a rectangle) geometrically on the Mawson plan and therefore also within the leaflet and as constructed. Both these documents are available at Teesside Archives, Exchange Square, Middlesbrough, together with a plan of the former 'Victoria Square' as created in Middlesbrough next to the Municipal Buildings c. 1901 in certain historically significant open space by the Borough Council of MiddlesbroughMiddlesbroughMiddlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...
, an entirely remarkable Victorian new town in many respects, particularly architectural ones (with the Mawson site plan original relating to the Victorian new town of West Hartlepool at Kendal and the leaflet original at Teesside Archives, Middesbrough, as quoted above). - With regard to the nature of the sculpture and the inscriptions upon the war memorials in the Hartlepools and elsewhere including the 1927 Scottish National War MemorialScottish National War MemorialThe Scottish National War Memorial is located in Edinburgh Castle, and commemorates Scottish soldiers, and those serving with Scottish regiments, who died in the two world wars and in more recent conflicts. The monument was formally opened in 1927...
, Edinburgh Castle, where the inner side of the entrance to the Hall of Honour includes a sculpture entitled 'Reveille' also referred to as 'The Cross Triumphant and the End of War' above the entrance, with a Royal Marine Memorial with Union Flags on each side, and above, on the frieze, an inscription Beaumont-Hamel which certainly relates to Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland MemorialBeaumont-Hamel Newfoundland MemorialThe Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial is a memorial site in France dedicated to the commemoration of Dominion of Newfoundland forces members who were killed during World War I. The preserved battlefield park encompasses the grounds over which the Newfoundland Regiment made their unsuccessful...
unveiled, presumably as relating to the Battle of the Somme, by the wartime Commander-in-Chief of the British armed forces, Field Marshal Earl Haig, in 1925. having been himself after his death shown with a wreath within the Scottish National War Memorial, as to the rather more evident connection with the 51st (Highland) Division Monument (Beaumont-Hamel)51st (Highland) Division Monument (Beaumont-Hamel)The 51st Division Memorial at Beaumont-Hamel is a memorial in France commemorating the soldiers of the 51st Division killed during World War I. The memorial is located near Y Ravine on the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial site...
, cf. "O Grave, where is thy Victory", Mark Taylor and the art of death by Jack Miles, 2002, this being a theological paper from the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute to be presented at the symposium “Grave Matters: Memory, Memorial, Mourning” on November 9, 2002, in conjunction with the exhibition Grave Matters at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). In conclusion (and in relation to the possible relationship between First World War memorials in western Europe and those in the east, as suggested) the western Battle of the Somme, opening on 1 July 1916 in the west, may perhaps be compared (or, for military and historical purposes, taken in conjunction with) the Russian Empire Brusilov OffensiveBrusilov OffensiveThe Brusilov Offensive , also known as the June Advance, was the Russian Empire's greatest feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal battles in world history. Prof. Graydon A. Tunstall of the University of South Florida called the Brusilov Offensive of 1916 the worst crisis of...
which commenced in the east on 4 June in the same year and which was remarkable in a military sense both east and west but ultimately, within Russia itself, domestically disastrous on account of the number of soldiers lost which considerably exceeded that of Austria-HungaryAustria-HungaryAustria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
thus proving an essential element in the future history of Europe and its division between east and west following the October RevolutionOctober RevolutionThe October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
and with a Soviet war memorial erected in Berlin on its anniversary (7 November New Style) in 1945, in line with the proposed German Avenue of SplendoursWelthauptstadt GermaniaWelthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...
in post-war Berlin as this had been planned from before the commencement of the Second World War.