The Westbury on Trym war memorial was unveiled at 3pm on Sunday 11 July 1920 at a ceremony attended by the Lord Mayor of Bristol and the Bishop of Bristol. The proceedings had started with a parade to the memorial from Canford Park attended by representatives of the area’s different churches, along with a number of different church choirs. As in so many other parishes, a committee had been formed to raise money for a memorial, and discussed what form this should take. There had been the usual debate about doing something for the people of the parish, and/or the families of the men who had died. A permanent memorial was decided on and Bristol architectural firm James and Steadman were commissioned to design it. The unveiling ceremony was notable, however, for one very conspicuous absentee; the Rev. H.J. Wilkins, Vicar of Westbury-on-Trym. The Rev Dr Wilkins, who was the local vicar from 1900 until his death in 1941, had objected to the form of the monument, saying that an obelisk was a “pagan” symbol. An extremely acrimonious row went on for several months, though with the committee members and the great majority of the public ranged against the vicar. At one point, Rev Wilkins denounced the obelisk from the pulpit, leading to one of his choristers walking out of the service in protest. The row carried on in the local press, with most people lining up to say the obelisk was a symbol of immortality, and was often used in cemetery memorials. Others pointed out that the Christian cross which Wilkins would have preferred was also commonly used in many pagan traditions. Nonconformists and Roman Catholics had also contributed towards the £750 cost of the monument and none of them were bothered about an obelisk. Others lined up to say that this row, which was entirely of the Vicar’s making, was a painful and unworthy disservice to the memory of those of his parishioners who had lost their lives fighting for King and Country. The obelisk was built, and it remains one of the more visible memorials in Bristol, located right in the centre of Westbury village. When unveiled, it featured the names of around 150 men who had died in the war. Names of local dead from the Second World War were added later, as was the large inscription which features on a lot of war memorials. It comes from the British 2nd Infantry Division memorial at Kohima in India which commemorates the battle of Kohima-Imphal in 1944, when the Indian/British Fourteenth Army led by Maj Gen William Slim (born in Bristol) inflicted the first major defeat on the Japanese on land during WW2. It reads: “When you go home, tell them of us and say for your tomorrow we gave our today.” (Eugene Byrne)
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 11:54:41 +0000