Folkestone War Memorial Folkestone, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

FOLKESTONE

737/0/10047 ROAD OF REMEMBRANCE 24-JUN-10 Folkestone war memorial

II* First World War memorial by F V Blundstone. Unveiled 2 December 1922. Later enclosed with low railings and wall; plaques added in commemoration of those who fell in the Second World War.

The monument is 25ft high and 26ft wide, and is composed of a central pedestal of Cornish granite with shallow curved flanking walls to either side. The pedestal bears the inscription: MAY THEIR / DEEDS BE / HELD IN / REVERENCE

The pedestal is surmounted by a bronze female figure; robed from the waist down, holding a cross in her left hand and a laurel wreath in her right. A Union Jack hangs at half mast from the shaft of the cross. At the base of the pedestal, between the flanking walls, is a cast bronze dedication panel. Cast in bas-relief, the panel depicts the various divisions of the armed forces marching; they face towards Folkestone Harbour. Beneath the imagery is the following dedication:

THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY / IN EVER GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN FROM FOLKESTONE, / AND THE MANY THOUSANDS FROM ALL PARTS OF THE EMPIRE WHO PASSED THIS SPOT ON THEIR WAY / TO FIGHT IN THE GREAT WAR (1914-1918) FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND FREEDOM, AND ESPECIALLY THOSE / OF THIS TOWN WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE, AND WHOSE NAMES ARE HERE RECORDED, / THIS MEMORIAL IS HUMBLY DEDICATED

On the flanking walls are bronze plaques which bear the Roll of Honour.

The memorial is surrounded by a low stone wall; to the front is a pair of bronze gates, each gate bears a bronze wreath which holds the inscription: MAY / THEIR DEEDS / BE HELD IN / REVERENCE

The memorial stands, facing out towards the sea, in the centre of a roundabout at the junction of The Leas, West Terrace, and the Road of Remembrance.

HISTORY: Folkestone war memorial was erected to honour the men of Folkestone who gave their lives during the First World War. It also remembers the thousands of men from Folkestone, and many other parts of the Empire, who marched over the site of the memorial on their way to Folkestone Harbour, from where they embarked for the battlefields of Europe. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Radnor, and was dedicated by the vicar of Folkestone, Rev. Canon Tindall. On its unveiling and dedication, floral tributes were laid by the Mayor of Folkestone (Alderman E J Bishop) on behalf of the town, Colonel W J Dugan on behalf of the Shorncliffe Garrison, the Deputy-Mayor of Calais on behalf of Calais and France, and the Vice-Consuls on behalf of the Belgian and Italian Allies.

Folkestone was a major embarkation point for troops travelling to and from Europe during the First World War. Folkestone Harbour Station served the harbour by rail, however many thousands of troops marched down to the harbour on foot. Folkestone war memorial stands at the head of the road which leads down to the harbour; the road was renamed the Road of Remembrance following the end of the war, commemorating the passage of thousands of men along it on their way to war.

Ferdinand Victor Blundstone (1882-1951) was of English and French descent and studied at the Royal Academy, where he won a travelling scholarship. He later attended the John Cass School of Art and worked under the celebrated sculptor Gilbert Bayes (1872-1953). Blundstone undertook a number of commissions for commemorative monuments, including the war memorial on Trinity Street, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, listed Grade II and the two war memorials at the Prudential Assurance building, Holborn, London, listed Grade II.

SOURCES: United Kingdom National Inventory of War Memorials, held by the Imperial War Museum. 'Unveiling by Lord Radnor', The Times, 4 December 1922 'The Unveiling of Folkestone (civic) War Memorial', Folkestone Express, 9 December 1922, accessed at www.folkestonehistory.org.uk on 27 April 2010<b