The Imperial War Museum
website has the following description.
"DESCRIPTION
LIFE SIZE SEATED CONTEMPLATIVE FIGURES , ON EITHER SIDE OF A CATAFALQUE AND CROSSED BANNERS. THE WHOLE STANDS ON AN ELEGANT CARVED PLINTH WITH AND ARCHED CAP STONE, ON A SQUARE TWO STEPPED BASE. THIS STANDS ON A RAISED OCTAGONAL PLATFORM AROUND THE EDGE OF WHICH ARE THE WW1 NAME PLAQUES. IN FRONT OF THE MEMORIAL IS A LOW WALL WITH WW2 PLAQUES SHIELD WITH TOWN CREST ABOVE CROSSED BANNERS BETWEEN SEATED FIGURES"
The figure at the front of the memorial is a nude male figure, whilst the figure at the rear is a dressed female figure with her head resting on her left hand and carrying a wreath in her right hand.
This British Legion
website has the following information.
"The Spenborough War Memorial was unveiled on 11 November 1922 by Lt Colonel Alfred Law Mowat DSO MC, to commemorate those who lost their lives in the First World War. It was paid for by public subscription, at a cost over over £20,000 - a very large sum at the time.
It bore the names of 469 local men and one woman. The names of four men who had been missed off the original commemorative plaques were added in 1928. Many more local men were to die from their wounds in the 1920s and 30s but they were not listed on the Memorial.
At that time, Spenborough consisted of the towns and villages of Cleckheaton, Liversedge, Gomersal, Scholes, Flush, Millbridge, Hightown, Roberttown, Norristhorpe, part of Oakenshaw and some smaller communities in the heart of the then West Riding of Yorkshire. During 1935 Spenborough was extended to encompass Birkenshaw and Drub.
In the year 2000 the names of a further 35 Servicemen who lost their lives in the First World War were added. These men had been missed off the original Memorial for various reasons. Thus the Memorial now commemorates 509 First World War casualties.
In the early 1950s the Memorial was adapted to accommodate those Servicemen who lost thier lives in the Second World War and as a result, a further 218 names were added.
On Armed Forces Day in 2009 the names of an additional seven local Servicemen lost since the end of the Second World War were added.
This was done during a Service of Re-dedication of the Memorial and had been arranged to be as near as possible to 1 July, as it was on this date the Battle of the Somme commenced. 22 Spenborough men lost their lives that morning and a further 100 perished before the battle was over - the blackest period in the history of the area.
In 1922, when Lt Colonel Mowat unveiled the Memorial, no one would have thought that 87 years later his grandson Major General Shaw CBE would be attending the re-dedication of the same Memorial, therefore keeping continuity for the town and the family.!"
The memorial has the following inscriptions
front of the memorial:
HONOUR TO THE
IMMORTAL DEAD
THAT GREAT WHITE COMPANY
OF SHINING SOULS WHO
GAVE THEIR YOUTH THAT
THE WORLD MIGHT GROW OLD
IN PEACE
MCMX1V - MCMXV111
Rear of the memorial:
AT THE GOING
DOWN OF THE SUN
AND IN THE MORNING
WE WILL THINK OF
THEM
bronze plaque on a wall in front of memorial:
URBAN DISTRICT OF SPENBOROUGH
THIS MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED
BY
LT. COL. ALFRED L. MOWAT. D.S.O. M.C
ON THE 11TH NOVEMBER 1922
On the Second World War wall
FOR YOUR TOMORROW WE GAVE OUR TODAY