Memorials to Animals The Scottish National War Memorial

Memorials to Animals
The Scottish National War Memorial
commemorates the birds and animals used by
the armed forces during the First World War
in a series of animal and heraldic carvings on
the south front of the Scottish National War
Memorial.
These and the lion and the unicorn at the
entrance of the memorial and the series of
roundels inside the memorial commemorating
the animals were sculpted by Phyllis Mary
Bone ARSA, RSA.
She was born on 15 February
Hornby, Lancashire, the daughter of
Bone. Phyllis was educated at St
High School in Edinburgh and
Edinburgh College of Art (1912-18).
1894 in
Dr D J M
George's
then at
In Edinburgh, she quickly established herself
as an accomplished sculptor of animal
subjects.
She received several substantial commissions
for architectural works in Edinburgh.
The RSPCA Animals War Memorial was created at
the Dispensary in Kilburn, north-west London, so that
there was a memorial that would also benefit living
animals.
The animal clinic was formally opened on Thursday, 10
November 1932, although it had already been treating
animals for 13 months, and is still in operation today as
the RSPCA Kilburn (Animal War Memorial) Clinic. The
building features a striking bronze sculpture and two
engraved Portland stone plaques dedicated to all the
animals whose lives were sacrificed during the First
World War.
The sculpture over the building’s entrance was
designed by Frederick Brook Hitch who won a
competition run by the RSPCA and The Royal Society
of British Sculptors (RBS) for the best memorial design.
It features just some of the types of animals that saw action and gave service –
horses, mules, oxen, dogs, elephants, camels and pigeons.
The stone plaques on either side of the entrance feature the memorial's inscriptions.
The other plaque reads:
1914 – 1918
This tablet records the deaths by enemy action, disease or accident of 484,143
horses, mules, camels and bullocks, and of many hundreds of dogs, carrier pigeons
and other creatures on the various fronts during the Great War. It also records the
fact that in France alone 725,216 sick and wounded animals were treated in the
veterinary hospitals provided by the RSPCA.
The Animals in War Memorial at Park Lane, London is a striking memorial to all the
animals and other creatures that have been caught up in wars and have served,
suffered and perished as a result.
After a long and challenging nationwide fundraising operation to raise the £1 million
or so needed, the Portland stone and cast-bronze memorial - designed by David
Backhouse, one of Britain's leading sculptors - was unveiled on 24 November 2004,
by Princess Anne, on its grassy site in central Park Lane, London.
The fund will provide for its maintenance in perpetuity.
The inscription carved on the memorial reads:
ANIMALS IN WAR
This memorial is dedicated to all the animals that served and died
alongside British and Allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time.
They had no choice.
On the rear of the memorial are these words:
Many and various animals were employed to support British and Allied Forces
in wars and campaigns over the centuries, and as a result millions died. From
the pigeon to the elephant, they all played a vital role in every region of the
world in the cause of human freedom.
Their contribution must never be forgotten.
Woodbank Memorial Park, Stockport was created in 1921 when Sir Thomas
Rowbotham, a former mayor of Stockport donated the Park to the townspeople in
honour of the Stockport men who fell in World War 1. Although the park was
registered with the UK National Inventory of War Memorials as a memorial park,
there was nothing in the park itself to acknowledge its purpose.
As with other, similar sites in the country, most local people had forgotten, or never
knew about, its history.
When a council officer located a sum of money from which the interest could be used
only in the park, the group known as the official 'Friends of Woodbank Park' was
asked how the money should be spent.
A tree had been cut into a totem a couple of years
earlier in the hope that funding might become
available for a sculpture, but at the time it wasn't a
priority and nothing further happened.
When the new money was offered it was
insufficient for other, larger projects and so it was
decided to develop the sculpture.
It didn't take the animal lovers in the group long to
decide that the subject should be animals that had
died in wars.
That would be something unique to the park.
Recognising its memorial status, it acknowledged
the sacrifice made by the innocents who did not
volunteer to die.
The memorial takes the form of a chainsaw carving, situated on the park's main
drive, not far from the entrance.
The principal animal shown is a horse at the top. There is also a mule, a carrier
pigeon, a cat, an Alsatian, and a mongrel dog that found people trapped by the Blitz
bombings - as well as a dove of peace.
The inscription reads - 'They died in war - they still
serve in conflict'.
The sculpture is over 16 feet tall.
Many animals were put to sleep during the war
because the owners feared they wouldn't be able to
feed them.
Many were taken by the Government for the war
effort.
An Alsatian like the one on the memorial was taken
during the war. The owners got their dog back at
the end but the dog was unable to adjust to being a
family pet again after the traumatic experience.
HMS Formidable was sunk
by two torpedoes from a
German submarine 20 miles
off Start Point at 2 am on 1
January 1915. The first
torpedo hit the number one
boiler port side; a second
explosion caused the ship to
list heavily to starboard. Huge
waves thirty feet high lashed
the stricken ship, with strong
winds, rain and hail, sinking it
in less than two hours.
Captain Loxley, his second-in-command, Commander Ballard, and the signaller
stayed at their posts throughout, sending flares and rockets off at regular intervals.
There was no panic, the men waiting calmly for the lifeboats to be lowered.
Someone played ragtime on the piano,
others sang.
The Chaplain, Reverend G Brooke
Robinson, went down with the ship by
risking his life going below to find
cigarettes.
Suddenly the ship gave a tremendous
lurch, the Captain shouted, 'Lads, this is
the last, all hands for themselves, and
God bless you and guide you to safety'.
He then walked to the forebridge, lit a
cigarette and, with his terrier Bruce on
duty at his side, waited for the end, in
true Royal Naval tradition.
St Jude’s Church, Hampstead, London, has what may have been the first of very
few war memorials to horses.
According to the Parish Paper the idea
for the memorial seems to have come
from the first vicar, the Reverend Basil
Bourchier who, as a forces chaplain in
the Great War, had seen their suffering.
In 1926 he was offered a bronze of a
war-horse moulded by Charles Lutyens
(the late father of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the
architect of the church) which had been
exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Largely, it seems, through contributions
from the congregation the bronze was
purchased and an accompanying plaque
and wooden plinth commissioned.
The memorial was unveiled on Easter Sunday, 4 April 4 1926 by Miss Frances
Jeffcock during 'Festal Mattins' at 11.30am and dedicated by the vicar. (Parish
Papers 737, 739, 740).
The plaque reads
In grateful and reverent memory of the Empire's horses (some 375,000) who fell in
the Great War (1914-1918) most obediently, and often most painfully, they died.
"Faithful unto death not one of them is forgotten before God". Easter 1926.
Unfortunately the bronze itself was later
stolen and so what remains today, on
the wall by the main west door, is the
original plaque and a new (1970) bronze
relief of a war horse by Rosemary
Proctor, daughter of William Maxwell
Rennie, the third vicar.
The old photograph (below) shows the
original horse on its plinth (designed by
Edwin Lutyens) with the plaque
attached. The memorial is standing to
the left of the St George's altar on the
north transept wall.
The icon, now at the entrance to the Lady Chapel, is on the left, with the candle
stand, now at the back of the church, beneath it. The painting behind the altar has
not been identified. The presence of the painting commemorating Michael Rennie in
the City of Benares lifeboat helps date the photograph probably to the early 1950s.
The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial commemorates the men of the Australian Light
Horse Brigade and New Zealand Mounted Rifles who died between 1916 and 1918
in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
It sits on ANZAC Parade, in Canberra, Australia.
The original version of this monument was in Port Said in Egypt, and was mostly
destroyed during the 1956 Suez War.
A piece from the original memorial, a shattered horse's head, was brought back to
Australia and used as part of a new statue honouring animals who have served with
the Australian military.
Desert Mounted Corps Memorial to ANZAC troops, located on ANZAC Parade, Canberra
References:
The Scottish War Memorials Project;
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_War_Memorial;
www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/
Australian War Memorial
St Jude’s Church, Hampstead, London