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Ascham St Vincent’s, Eastbourne

The Ashcam St Vincent memorial is a Grade II listed, brick built archway with sandstone dressings and inscription panels located along Carlisle Road in Eastbourne. The arch is approximately 30 feet high and 25 feet wide. The memorial arch originally formed the entrance to the school grounds of the Ascham St Vincent’s school for boys. The school was later demolished and replaced with a housing development.

The memorial was erected in 1919 to commemorate former pupils of the boys school who lost their lives in the First World War with two plaques on the pillars of the internal face listing the names.

An application was made in 2006/7 to the Grants for War Memorials Scheme. The project was to renewal the inscribed name panels, which had badly eroded and not suitable for re-cutting, clean, re-point with lime mortar, minor repairs and improvement of the paving around the arch.

In 2006/7 the project was awarded a grant of £8,000 towards an estimated project of £16,427. The grant offer excluded the costs for the provision of shrubs to be planted as soft landscaping work is not eligible under this scheme.

The stone inscription panel in the pediment on the road face is decorated with a border of carved floral emblems and a central wreath. The Inscription reads:

‘In memory
of
forty nine
gallant men
who were at school here in their early boyhood
and gave their lives in the service of their country
during the Great War of 1914-1919
at the going down of the sun and in the morning
we will remember them’.

The internal side of the arch is plainer and bears the inscription:

‘They went with songs to the
battle. They were young,
straight of limb, true of eye,
steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end
against odds uncounted.
They fell with their faces
to the foe.’

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM1843
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 17004

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

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