The Town Memorial
Leatherhead War
Memorials
TAKEN, NOT GIVEN, Chapter 2
Note: the content of these pages
is based on handwritten script.
Some additions to the text proved to be indecipherable.
The website editor apologises if there are errors of
transcription and welcomes suggested factual corrections.
The Town War Memorial is erected
The story of the Leatherhead War Memorial is outlined in some papers which belonged to the late Reverend Thomas Frederick Hobson, Vicar of St Mary & St Nicholas Leatherhead, who cared for his flock both at home and serving abroad during the 1914-18 War. The papers consist of correspondence and press extracts and were donated by a relative to the Leatherhead & District Local History Society in 1989.
The War Memorial in North Street
had some predecessors:
There is a board in St Mary & St Nicholas Leatherhead which
lists the dead [it was formerly on the old clock tower].
In 1916 a small group of ladies gave a shrine in Leatherhead.
Among these ladies was Mrs Finké, the mother of Captain Richard Finké of the Royal Sussex who was killed in France in 1915.
On 21st March 1917 a Roll of Honour was dedicated by the Bishop
of Winchester. It was situated on the Old Clock Tower - long
since removed.
A letter dated 25 October 1919 on Leatherhead War Agricultural Committee headed paper, amended to read 'Memorial Sub-Committee' gives to Reverend Hobson the names of a small sub-committee who have been elected and five others elected the previous April. One was Mrs Chapman, mother of Captain Chapman, Royal Horse Artillery who was killed in France in early 1918. The Honorary Secretary was Edward Wade, who resigned on 3 October 1920 on leaving Leatherhead.
Also on 25 October 1919, Reverend Hobson received a letter from Mr CF Leach, the father of Grey de Lèche Leach, Scots Guards, who had died 'detonating' a bomb in 1916 and whose actions had saved the lives of others. This letter referred to a previous one of 25 March 1918 which had indicated a willingness to develop the vacant land by the Clock Tower and suggesting that the War Memorial Committee view an exhibition of war memorials at the Royal Academy before deciding which memorial they would recommend.
On 29 October 1919 the substance of the letter was communicated to the Committee and it is noted that three of the members had visited an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the one at Burlington House under the auspices of the Royal Academy.
On 5 January 1920 it was decided to gratefully accept Mr Leach's offer. It was noted that the parish would defray the cost of the individual tablets and that a memorial cross in grey Cornish granite should be erected. Finally it was noted that the architect would be Mr Noel Sheffield MSA and that the total cost would be about £1000. However on the reverse of this item there is a note in pencil giving the cost of the proposed arcade panelling as £900 and the stones as £350.
Another note dated 27 August 1920 is concerned with the names of those who should, or should not be included. Four were excluded as they had spent a very brief time in Leatherhead, another because he had not served abroad and finally one whose name appeared on the war memorial in neighbouring Stoke d'Abernon.
Also provision was made for the inclusion of the names of two men "whose deaths after demobilisation resulted directly from the effects of war service should be included if space allows." Though there was space their names were not subsequently included, but it must have provided the precedent for the inclusion of some who died as late as 1920 and 1922.
Finally the papers include an extract from the Leatherhead Advertiser, Epsom District Times and County Post of 9 April 1921. It described the unveiling of the Memorial in the afternoon of Sunday 3 April 1921. The article noted that the cost (apart from the tablets) had been defrayed by Mr Leach, who had also provided the land. Possibly unknown to the correspondent reporting the event was that the 5th East Surreys, the local Territorial unit, was the one in which Mr Leach's son had enlisted on the outbreak of war in 1914.
sources: papers listed under serial no. LX622 in the Leatherhead & District Local History Society Records in the Leatherhead Institute.
Omitted in this account are the tryptich to the Church Lads Brigade casualties in the lobby of All Saints' Leatherhead and the plaque in the Methodist Church.
last updated 17 Sep 2004