Downside War Memorial
An extremely fortuitous find in the archive today ties in slightly late with the Remembrance Commemorations, but is most definitely worth sharing here.
Within the school records is a box labeled Downside War Memorial, and inside were these fabulous plans of the Downside War Memorial, designed by Leonard Stokes, who also built a large portion of Downside school. Dated 1921, the memorial was unveiled on Easter Sunday, 16th April 1922 and was blessed by the Right Reverend Bishop Keatinge, an Old Gregorian.
After the Great War, 110 names were on the memorial, all Old Gregorians who had given their lives during the conflict. The stone used was Bath stone.
There is also a blueprint of the inscriptions of the names to be written on the memorial sent over by the company producing it. Another memorial to the memory of the Old Gregorians is the nave of the Abbey Church. The names are also inscribed on a plaque on the west end.
Finally, we have a picture in the photographic archive shortly after the memorial was installed, complete with a peacock!