Bow Brickhill War Memorial

The Bow Brickhill War Memorial is located on the Village Green, at Church Road, Bow Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, England.[1][2] It is a grade II listed building with Historic England.[3][4]

Bow Brickhill War Memorial

History

The Bow Brickhill War Memorial was erected in March 1921, during the period following the First World War, which cost the United Kingdom more than one million military deaths.[3] Since the UK government did not repatriate the bodies of all soldiers who died in overseas combat, tens of thousands of war memorials were erected in the UK so that communities could memorialize those who served and returned and those who died.[5]

The memorial was officially unveiled by the dedicated on 26 March 1921 by the 12th Duke of Bedford. In 1947, names of locals who died in the Second World War were added.[6] In 1968, the memorial was damaged; donations were collected for repairs.[3]

The memorial was re-dedicated on Remembrance Day 1988 and in 2016, two new names were added, both casualties of the First World War.[6]

Description

The Bow Brickhill War Memorial is a freestanding monument made of Portland stone and features 66 names inscribed and infilled with black. The monument takes the form of an octagonal shaft surmounted by a stone critself mountedunted on a two-stepped square base surmounted by a square-sectioned pinth, with shaped angles.[1]

The front face is inscribed with eight names, dedicated to the men from the civil parish of Bow Brickhill who died in the First World War (1914-1918). The other faces are inscribed with the names of men who served in the First World War and the upper step of the base has five names, men who died in the Second World War (1939-1945).[1]

Notable people

Gerald Featherstone Knight, grandson of the rector of Bow Brickhill, was a captain in the Royal Flying Corps who died of cancer on 30 October 1919, aged 25.[7] Knight was posthumously awarded the Military Cross for his gallantry in escaping from captivity. He authored a memoir, Brother Bosch: An Airman's Escape from Germany, published in 1919.[7]

References
  1. Bow Brickhill. Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  2. Bow Brickhill War Memorial. War Memorials Online. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  3. Historic England. "Bow Brickhill War Memorial (1448404)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  4. 13 Bucks war memorials listed in 2017. Mix 96, 11 November 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  5. Markham, Sydney Frank (1975). A History of Milton Keynes and District: From 1800 to about 1950. White Crescent Press. ISBN 978-0-900804-12-0.
  6. "Roll of Honour - Buckinghamshire - Bow Brickhill". www.roll-of-honour.com. Retrieved 29 March 2020.
  7. "'Brother Bosch', an Airman's Escape from Germany by Gerald Featherstone Knight | Project Gutenberg | World War I Centenary". Retrieved 29 March 2020.

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