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St Mary's Church Stafford

This memorial constitutes two iron plaques with gilt inscriptions in a gothic script which are set within a decorative framework. Fixings on the rear identify that the plaques were hung. The history of the plaques is such a mystery that we do not even know how they came into the Trust’s possession. Our records begin in 2006 when the Trust's Regional Volunteers were contacted to try and help determine where the memorial is from.

As the memorial had been in storage for a number of years, in 2009 the Trust made a ‘special grant’ of £4,465 for some specialist conservation work to the memorials by a metals conservator so that they were in a suitable condition to be relocated. This included treating areas of rust, cleaning the memorials and re-painting the framework and names where there was evidence for this original treatment. The colour for the paint was established by matching the remaining paintwork against specialist historic paints available.

The inscriptions on the memorials read:
“Of your charity pray for the souls of all who gave their lives for their country and especially for the men from this parish: mcmriv-mcmrir” followed by the names of the fallen, 147 in total.

Inexplicably, an ‘r’ is used where one would expect to find an ‘x’ with roman numerals but the dates identify the memorial as a World War I memorial and the style of the memorials, font and inscription strongly suggest that the memorial originated from a church. Following an appeal in the ‘Staffordshire Newsletter’ in 2007, relatives of those named on the memorials contacted the Trust and links were made to Stafford. Following research by Regional Volunteers the names also pointed towards Staffordshire. Research by Regional Volunteers mapped many of those named nearby to Christ Church in Stafford which was closed in 1983. Whether this was the original location of the memorial we are unlikely to know for sure, but the Stafford connection was clear.

A local Regional Volunteer of the Trust found an appropriate location within Stafford for the long-term relocation of the memorial. We are pleased to advise that St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Place, Stafford kindly agreed to permanently re-home the memorial, and they were re-dedicated on Armed Forces Day on 25th June 2011.

Further information

War Memorials Trust reference WM3143
UK National Inventory of War Memorials: 47564

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

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