St Anne's Church Memorial - Commercial Road, London, UK
N 51° 30.722 W 000° 01.796
30U E 706085 N 5710950
This Great War memorial stands in the churchyard of St Anne's in Limehouse, east London. The memorial is located in the north east corner of the churchyard close to Commercial Road at the junction with Three Colt Street.
Waymark Code: WMPJ1F
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/05/2015
Views: 3
The churchyard appears to be kept under lock and key and the only time that access can be guaranteed is when there is a service taking place in the church. The memorial can be seen through the churchyard's railings.
The inscription, on the front of the memorial, reads:
The Glory of
God
and in grateful memory of the men of Limehouse who fell in
The Great War 1914-1918
Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends
Of any names not carved in perishable stone
God holds eternal record in His heart alone
The war memorial is in the Imperial War Musuem database as record 60450 where it is described as:
Christ depicted blessing, in bronze on a tall pedestal with a relief depicting the dead of no-mans land.
The memorial is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website telling us:
Churchyard War Memorial at Church of St Anne's. Post 1918. War Memorial to 1914-18 War. Cruciform plan. White stone; approached by 4 steps with balustrades from each of 4 sides. Plinth, at centre of this cross, of white stone with bronze pictorial panel in low relief and surmounted by bronze figure of Christ in blessing.
The Exploring East London website mentions the bronze relief on the memorial:
In the churchyard of St Anne's Church, East India Dock Road. This bronze is on the base of the Limehouse War Memorial and is a realistic depiction of the carnage and destruction caused by the trench warfare in Flanders in World War 1. It is in marked contrast to the idealistic figures sometimes shown on other war memorials.
The London Gardens Online website mentions the memorial in an article about St Anne's Churchyard and suggests a year for the unveiling:
The war memorial by Arthur G. Walker, which was unveiled in 1921, shows a bronze figure of Christ on a stone plinth with a bronze relief of no-man's land, which is on a raised platform approached by four flights of balustraded steps.