Westbury Parish Church’s war memorial was rededicated this month, having been renovated after years in disrepair.
Parish wardens Tony Coutts-Britton and Caroline Dunseath secured a £3,000 grant from the area board to restore the memorial. The stonework was then repaired by local masonry firm Young Johnson, and the memorial rededicated in place on Sunday 17th August.
The service was led by the Bishop of Ramsbury, Rt Revd Edward Condry, and attended by the two parish wardens and Westbury Town and Wiltshire councillor David Jenkins.
Tony Coutts-Britton said, “The day went very well indeed. The bishop delivered a lovely service of rededication, and Caroline and I read out the 92 names of the fallen.
“The area board’s grant was very generous, and Young Johnson did a smashing job of repairing the memorial.
“Although structurally sound, it had been an absolute mess for years. The memorial has now been restored to its original colour, had a new base, the grass has been levelled and a new pathway put in.”
The church memorial was erected before the town’s memorial to commemorate soldiers from Westbury. Unusually, it has no names engraved on it, and instead the soldiers’ names are kept in a book in the church.
“Unlike the town memorial, which commemorates 1914 – 1918, ours actually covers 1914 – 1919, when the war officially ended with the Treaty of Versailles,” explained Tony. “The most peculiar thing about it is the stone of remembrance at the back, which reads ‘Their name liveth forever more’. All Commonwealth Great War memorials have this engraved, but Westbury’s did long before it became the standard; how that happened I will never know.”
The revived memorial can be seen in the grounds of the All Saints’ Church on Church Lane, Westbury.
Tony Coutts-Britton will be hosting a series of Great War talks at the church, the first of which will be on Friday 12th September. It will cover the opening of war in 1914.
