Holy Trinity Church Memorial - Southend Crescent, Eltham, Kent, UK
N 51° 26.904 E 000° 03.841
31U E 295995 N 5703779
This World War I memorial, with World War II added later, stands in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Church on the south east side of Southend Crescent in Eltham in south east London.
Waymark Code: WMJ11M
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/07/2013
Views: 1
The memorial is a granite plinth with cross on the top. A bronze depiction of
Christ is nailed to the cross. The figure is about a third life-size.
There are two inscriptions on the plinth. The upper one reads:
Greater Love
Hath No Man Than
This
The inscription directly beneath it reads:
To the Glory of God
and in Grateful Memory of those
who gave their lives for their God
and their Country 1914 - 1919
1939 - 1945
The church's website tells us about the
Gallipoli Chapel, within the church:
The chapel on the south side of the Chancel,
originally dedicated to St Agnes, is now better known as the Gallipoli
Chapel; the connection between Holy Trinity Church and the Gallipoli
Campaign of 1915-1916 lies chiefly in the personality of the vicar of the
parish at that time, the Revd Henry Hall. Henry Hall had already had a
distinguished academic and educational career when he arrived in Eltham in
1907; he had been an Exhibitioner at St John’s College, Cambridge, and
Headmaster of Reigate and Totnes Grammar Schools. He remained Vicar of Holy
Trinity until his death in 1942. Soon after arriving in Eltham he was
appointed a Chaplain to the Territorials, and he volunteered to leave his
parish temporarily to become Chaplain to the British Army’s 29th Division
while they were preparing for active duty abroad. He went with them when
they were posted to the Middle East and accompanied them on 25th April 1915
when they landed on the West Beach at Gallipoli. Like many chaplains in the
Great War, Henry Hall showed great courage; he stayed with his men,
celebrating Holy Communion for them in the midst of the battle, for which he
was mentioned in dispatches. During this tour of duty he was invalided to
Alexandria in July and demobilised the following April. Shortly after his
return to Eltham, and because he was so moved by the experience in the
Dardanelles that was to haunt him throughout his life, Henry Hall resolved
to set up a memorial to the men of the 29th Division who did not return to
Britain. The relatively new St Agnes Chapel at Holy Trinity provided an
appropriate setting; thus it was transformed into the Gallipoli Memorial
Chapel, dedicated as a permanent memorial to the 29th Division and unveiled
as such by General Sir Ian Hamilton on 25th April 1917. The original St
Agnes Chapel had been funded in1909 by Mrs Edith Gertrude Latter, resident
of Southend Hall (the site now occupied by Inca Drive), in memory of her
sister. Two of the windows on the south side also commemorate an older
sister of Mr Latter and an aunt of Mrs Latter. These show the Virgin and
Child surrounded by angels and the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt. The
central window on that side tells the story of St Martin of Tours. Look out
for a small tower within the wheatsheaf logo; this indicates that these
windows were manufactured by the firm of C.E. Kempe and Co. which by then
was under the chairmanship of Kempe’s cousin, Walter Tower. Working with the
firm of Sir Arthur Blomfield & Sons, C E Kempe & Co were responsible for all
the original decoration of the St Agnes Chapel as well as many other
embellishments throughout the church over the next few years. The chapel’s
East Window is by Tom Carter Shapland and is a 1957 replacement of the
earlier Kempe window, destroyed in 1944. In the centre is Christ in Glory.
On the left is St Agnes, to whom the chapel was originally dedicated, and
beyond her is the Baptism of Christ, surmounted by the symbols of SS Matthew
and Mark. To the right of Christ in Glory is his Mother, and beyond her the
Last Supper, surmounted by the symbols of SS Luke and John