The East Knoyle War Memorial is a monument that commemorates the lives of soldiers from East Knoyle, Wiltshire, England, who were killed in war. Unveiled on 26 September 1920, it was originally intended to commemorate the 20 soldiers from the parish who died during the First World War. Subsequent inscriptions were added to recognise twelve who were killed in the Second World War, and a soldier killed by friendly fire in the Iraq War. In 2016 the memorial was designated a Grade II listed building.
The memorial was designed by Herbert Maryon, who taught sculpture at the University of Reading. It consists of a three-stepped stone base, a square plinth, and a shaft that rises and terminates in a small wheel cross. Each side of the plinth is inscribed. The front bears an inscription dedicated to those who died in the world wars; each is named on the right and rear. The left panel includes a Bible verse and the name of the soldier who died in Iraq.
Background
In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Virtually every village, town, or city erected some form of memorial to commemorate their dead. In East Knoyle, a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, at least 20 of the 853 people who lived in the village before the war died in military service during it. The dead included three brothers, and five members of the Wyndham family, which tended one of the principal estates in East Knoyle. Shortly before her death in 1920, Madeline Wyndham, the matriarch of the family, commissioned two plaques for St. Mary's Church, one commemorating her five grandsons, and another, designed by Alexander Fisher, recognising all those from East Knoyle who died during the war.
Commissioning
A memorial committee was tasked with raising funds for a memorial and for additions to the village hall, to serve as a community centre. Chaired by Colonel Guy Wyndham, the committee had George Sidney Herbert as its honorary secretary, and was assisted by a Mr. F. W. Barnes. The three were well known to the village. Wyndham was the second son of Percy Wyndham and the father of Guy Richard Charles Wyndham, who at the time tended Clouds House, one of the principal estates in the area; his eldest son, George Heremon Wyndham, was killed in action in 1915. Herbert, who lived at Knoyle House across from the memorial's eventual location, was the son of the 14th Earl of Pembroke and brother of the 15th; involved with numerous organisations in East Knoyle and Wiltshire, he was, in the words of the Western Gazette, one of the county's "best-known and most highly valued public men". Barnes, meanwhile, was praised some years later for an "extreme willingness in helping on anyone or any cause in the village". Ultimately, £1,450 was raised for the cause: £1,000 from the trustees of the Seymour estate, and £450 through subscription.
The architect chosen to design the memorial was Herbert Maryon, who taught sculpture, including metalwork, modelling, and casting, at the University of Reading. Maryon had established himself in the Arts and Crafts movement before moving to academia, and in the years following the war designed several memorials. The East Knoyle memorial was among his first; the following year he designed the Mortimer War Memorial, a similar monument in Mortimer Common, Berkshire, and in 1923 he created a plaque for Manchester's Chorlton Road Congregational Church. The University of Reading likewise commissioned him to create their war memorial, which was unveiled in 1924.
Design
The East Knoyle War Memorial is located on a village green in the centre of East Knoyle, at the intersection of Church Road, The Street, and Wise Lane. Before a 1996 bypass, it stood alongside the A350. The location was named Knoyle House Corner when the memorial was built, although the namesake house was razed in 1954. Several hundred feet down Church Road lies St Mary's Church, a grade I listed building dating to the twelfth century.
The memorial is carved from Portland stone. It comprises a three-stepped square base set beneath a square plinth, from which a thin, tapering shaft rises and terminates in a small wheel cross. Several stone flower holders rest on the top step, one of which is inscribed "BEST KEPT WAR MEMORIAL 1973".
The four sides of the plinth are each inscribed. The side facing the road bears an inscription commemorating those who died in the First and Second World Wars; their names are listed to its right and rear, respectively. John 15:13 is inscribed to its left, above the name of a soldier who died in the Iraq War.