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Royal Gloucestershire Hussars

Royal Gloucestershire Hussars war memorial is Latin cross with a tapering shaft surmounting a plinth and base. Four pictorial plaques depict battles in Gallipoli 1915, Sinai 1916, Palestine 1917 and Syria 1918. There are four panels with names of the fallen. A further pictorial plaque has been added depicting a scene from WWII. It is located at Gloucester Cathedral. The memorial is Grade II* listed and in Cathedral Precincts Conservation Area.

In 2018, a grant of £5,000 was awarded through the War Memorials Trust Grants Scheme supported by the First World War Memorials Programme and other voluntary contributions from supporters. It supported repair and conservation works. The memorial was given a light clean, using a proprietary DOFF cleaning system. This removed algal growth and other deposits from the surface of the masonry.

On the superstructure of the memorial, unsympathetic repairs carried out previously, using very hard cement-based mortar were removed where this could occur without causing damage to the host stone. The surface was re-formed using lime-based mortars.

The existing inscription on the north face of the memorial was the subject of careful work. The original inscription had become difficult to read as a result of decaying soft beds within the masonry. At some point in the past the inscription had been ‘made good’ by means of infilling the decayed stone with cement-based mortar and re-cutting the lettering into the repair. This hard material had accelerated decay in the surrounding stone leading to further deterioration.

After discussions involving War Memorials Trust, Historic England, the Senior Conservation Officer at Gloucester City Council, the Cathedral Architect and the contractor, it was agreed that the hard repair materials could be carefully removed, and the exposed decayed area consolidated using Zinc Hydroxichloride based mortar. Once the new repair material had been built-up to the face of the stone, the conservator was able to carefully carve new lettering into the material, matching the letter forms to the original.

The steps leading up to the memorial were also repaired. The decayed steps were carefully prepared by cutting away entire stones (or making small apertures where stones could be indented). The new stone elements were inserted into place, with a slight fall outwards to ensure drainage of surface water away from the memorial. All fixing and pointing mortars were lime-based.

SmartWater was applied to the war memorial as part of the In Memoriam 2014 project seeking to deter the theft of metal from war memorials.
The memorial was made by masons Cash and Wright, with bronze panels by Captain Adrian Jones, cast by RL Boulton and Sons. The memorial was altered after World War by the addition of a further relief panel by Edward Payne.

The inscription on the memorial reads:

“In memory of
the members of the
Royal Gloucestershire
Hussars Yeomanry
who gave their lives
in the Great War
1914-1918

In memory of the members of the
Royal Gloucestershire Hussars
who gave their lives
in the war 1939-1945
and whose names are recorded in
Gloucester Cathedral”

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM6773
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 20771

War Memorials Online: 154807

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

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