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Chicksands

The Grade II listed memorial at the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre in Chicksands, Bedfordshire, commemorates the role of the Fortieth Regiment of Foot in the Napoleonic Wars, as well as marking the end of both the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimean War, at which time the memorial was restored and moved to another site. There is also an inscription to commemorate the restoration and relocation of the memorial which took place in the 1970s. The limestone obelisk stands on a square based plinth with inscriptions on all four sides. It is located on the lawn of Chicksands Priory which serves as the Officers’ Mess at this Ministry of Defence owned site.

In September 2002 War Memorials Trust gave £250 towards work to clean and re-colour three of the inscriptions on the memorial. The inscription on the fourth side dates from 1976 and was not in need of work.

The inscription on the west face of the plinth reads:

For Peace Restored To Europe
And Freedom to the Nations
Oppressed, insulted
By the Ambition of one Man
Who in the End might have defied Resistance, extinguished Hope
But for their Heroic Efforts.
Aided by the Counsels and Valour of this Country
Which claims so proud a share in the Glory of their Deliverance
For these Blessings
Long and arduosly contended for
Let gratitude be felt
To those whether of this or foreign lands,
Who nobly contributed to procure them.
But above all
To the power invisible supreme

On the east reads:

The Officers Non Commissioned Officers & Private Soldiers
of the Fortieth Regiment of foot
who gloriously fell in Contest
maintained by Great Britain against revolutionary France
commencing in the year 1793
and terminating in the year 1815
by the Battle of Waterloo and the Capture of Paris
This Pillar is erected
by General Sir George Osbourn Bart. their Colonel
In humble Gratitude to Divine Providence
for the Success of His Majesty’s Arms
and for the Restoration of the Blessings
Of Peace

and on the north side reads:

This Pillar
Was restored and removed to its present site
By Sir George Robert Osbourn Baronet
In commemoration of a
Treaty of Paris
Signed at Paris
on the thirtieth day of March 1856
between the Allied Powers of
Great Britain, France, Sardinia and Turkey
and the one side, and
Russia
On the other, at the termination
Of the arduous, and memorable Campaign of the
Crimea
Alma, Balaclava, Inkermann, Sebastopol

The inscription on the south side, which did not need conserving, reads:

This monument
was restored and removed in 1975/76 to this
its third location by members of
the United States Air Force stationed at
Royal Air Force Chicksands
in recognition of the lasting bonds of
friendship between the peoples of America
and to commemorate
25 years of operations here by the United States
Air Force security service, the bicentennial of
American independence and European
architectural heritage year.

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM916
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 7614

The obelisk is listed building number 37575

If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org

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