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Wittersham
Town or City: Wittersham
County: Kent
Country: England
WMT Reference Number: WM2300
Value of grant: £560.00
Type of memorial: Freestanding
Type of work: Conservation and repair
Grant scheme: English Heritage/Wolfson Foundation Grants
Year: 2008
UKNIWM reference number: 1152
The memorial in the south Kent vilage of Wittersham, near Tenterden, is a Portland stone sculpture of a crown on an orb, placed on a cushion. The whole stands on a pillar on a moulded plinth and a base. On the front of the plinth is carved a laurel wreath surrounding the dates 1914 – 1918, and on the back a similar wreath surrounding the inscription Lest We Forget. The dates 1939 and 1945 are carved either side of this. The names of the fallen inscribed around the other faces of the plinth. The memorial stands on a shallow step on an area paved with Wealden sandstone, around which is a flowerbed and lawn. It is sited beside the junction of the main through road and The Street, next to the village green and steps lead up it from the road.
In February 2008 English Heritage and the Wolfson Foundation offered a grant of £560 towards work to clean the memorial, remove failing mortar and re-point it and to fill in a shallow crack which had appeared on the shaft of the memorial.
A committee to oversee the arrangements for a village war memorial was constituted in August 1919, and through personal contacts the sculptor Sir George Frampton agreed to design the memorial free of charge. (Sir George Frampton also sculpted the well-known memorial to Edith Cavell in St Martin’s Place off Trafalgar Square in London and the sculpture of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens). The memorial was dedicated on Sunday 30 January 1921 and unveiled by Capt H H C Baird DSO, The Buffs. It was funded entirely by the village, each household making a donation.
The dedication on the front of the memorial, under the World War I dates, reads
To those who died for us
Further information
War Memorials Trust reference WM2300
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 1152
Information about Sir George Frampton held by the National Archives (includes a mention of Wittersham War Memorial)
If you have a concern about this memorial please contact the Trust on conservation@warmemorials.org
