With the annual Remembrance events fresh in our minds it is appropriate to look back at past occasions when townsfolk in general and sections of the local community in particular wanted to establish permanent memorials to those who gave their lives during times of war.
An early example is the simple memorial board in St Mary's Church, Banbury, which bears the names of local people who did not survive the conflict in South Africa during the Boer War.
At 2.30pm on Sunday April 23 1922 an impressive gathering of to
wn dignitaries and representatives of other organisations formed a procession that wound its way via the High Street, West Bar and the Broad Shades to the newly-established People's Park.
Here they were greeted by thousands of onlookers wishing to be part of a significant occasion, namely the unveiling of a Cenotaph by Major General Sir Francis Mulcahy. The impressive memorial was a 10 foot 9 inches high Celtic Cross cast in Portland Stone.
Ex-servicemen had raised the necessary money as a tribute to fallen comrades. The designer was the respected Oxford architect Gilbert Gardner but perhaps of equal importance was the care taken to get the exact location right. In anticipation of the way in which the park was to be laid out, the Cross was positioned so as to ensure that in the future it would be a central feature.
Interestingly there appears to have been some uncertainty about whether the permanent memorial was going to be ready in time for the date decided upon, St George's Day.
As a precaution Messrs Braggins, the Gatteridge Street timber merchants, made a temporary cenotaph. The ceremony of unveiling was embodied in a religious service led by Canon Jones who was vicar of St Mary's.
On that day in 1922 the dedication was to the memory of 325 men and one woman (a nurse) who died during the Great War. There then followed the placing of tributes by the organisations represented. The Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars laid a wreath of violets and lilies and the British Legion left a laurel wreath. In contrast the Banbury Fire Brigade deposited a cushion in National Fire Brigade Association colours that had been made by Smith and Sons of Town Hall Buildings.
Two companies of Girls Guides led by Miss Fairfax also contributed flowers. Before the day was out many of those who had been part of the vast sea of faces in the People's Park made their way to Blinkhorn's Picturehouse in the Market Place for an 8pm band concert presented by the Banbury Borough and British Legion Band.
By late 1945, the Northern Aluminium Company had established its very own stone memorial. Unlike the one in the park this was made of our local Hornton Stone and assumed the form of a column surmounted by a sundial and placed in the middle of an ornamental pond.
Within a nearby flower border was a black marble tablet on which was written the inscription 'Never before in the history of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'.
This memorial was the brainchild of the Works' staff who felt that they wanted to pay tribute to former colleagues. More than that their actions forged a link between the NAC's war effort and the Royal Air Force. Production of Spitfires owed much to the Banbury factory.
As in the case of the cenotaph in the People's Park, Oxford architect Gilbert Gardner was much involved in the design work.
However, the Banbury branch of Hinkins and Frewin carried out the actual erection of the column.
Although most of the factory has now been razed to the ground it is good to know that the intervention of English Heritage has ensured the conservation of the Memorial Garden in which the column is located.
Two years on from the highlighting of the aluminium factory's tribute, which was recorded in their Safety First magazine, Banbury School announced its intention to enhance the approach from Ruskin Road with a Memorial Gateway.
In Gwen Bustin's Old Banburians' notes for November 1947 she explained that the aim was to make a visual impact on staff and pupils arriving and departing from the premises.
There was the added incentive that future expansion plans for the school were unlikely to include removal of these gates. Accordingly members of the Old Banburians' Society were told to expect an appeal for money to support the project.
By March of 1949 the Banburian magazine for that term carried the news that many people, including former pupils, were not wholly in favour of the scheme for the Gate.
There then followed an extraordinary meeting as a result of which it was abandoned. If any of my readers happen to know why there was this opposition I would welcome the information.
It seems that a more acceptable approach to the creation of a permanent memorial at the school was to add an oak panel to an existing board. On this the names of the fallen during the 1939 to 45 conflict could be recorded.
A special committee was set up to achieve this and Mowbrays of Oxford carried out the work. This new memorial was dedicated on November 11 1950.
The event caught the eye of both local newspapers and a Guardian photograph revealed that the occasion was appropriately attended by Roy Coleman and Sheila Follett (Head Boy and Head Girl) and by representatives of the armed services in the shape of old Banburians Sgt Joyce Cleaver WRAC and Lieut W.J. Cooper RN.
On Tuesday of last week the Times published a poignant article entitled 'bringing home the immensity of our loss'. In my column I have endeavoured to show how Banbury has achieved this.
As Juliet Nicolson in the Times has rightly observed 'memorial stones … provided the closest possible substitute for graves'.
Linked to such symbols of our desire to remember those who gave their lives are 'memories of the resilience of human nature and a determination to survive'.
