Busbridge War Memorial is a

First World War memorial World War I is remembered and commemorated by various war memorials, including civic memorials, larger national monuments, war cemeteries, private memorials and a range of utilitarian designs such as halls and parks, dedicated to remembering th ...

in the churchyard of St John's Church in village of

Busbridge Busbridge is a village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England that adjoins the town of Godalming. It forms part of the Waverley ward of '' Bramley, Busbridge and Hascombe''. It was until the Tudor period often recorded ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, south-eastern England. Designed by

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

, it is Grade II*

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

Background

In the aftermath of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was the architect

, described by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed

the Cenotaph The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth dead of the First World W ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

in London, which became the focus for the national

Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...

commemorations, as well as the

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the

Stone of Remembrance The Stone of Remembrance is a standardised design for war memorials that was designed in 1917 by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). It was designed to commemorate the dead of World War I, to b ...

which appears in all large

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mil ...

cemeteries and in several of Lutyens's civic war memorials. Busbridge's memorial is one of fifteen War Crosses by Lutyens, all sharing a broadly similar design, and one of several of Lutyens' works in the village. Brighton Road, Busbridge - geograph

Lutyens' connection with Busbridge originated through

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...

, a garden designer with whom Lutyens established a long-running friendship and professional partnership. He designed her house at

Munstead Wood Munstead Wood is a Grade I listed house and garden in Munstead Heath, Busbridge on the boundary of the town of Godalming in Surrey, England, south-east of the town centre. The garden was created by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, and became ...

on the outskirts of the village in 1896 to complement the garden she had built and the pair worked together on several garden and country house projects, particularly in the local area. Lutyens went on to design several

memorials A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...

to members of the Jekyll family, which stand in the same churchyard as the war memorial and a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

screen in the church itself. Lutyens established his reputation as an architect designing country houses for wealthy clients; Busbridge is one of several of his war memorial commissions which apparently resulted from pre-war clients and associates.

History and design

Busbridge War Memorial was unveiled at a ceremony on 23 July 1922 by General

Sir Charles Monro, 1st Baronet General Sir Charles Carmichael Monro, 1st Baronet, (15 June 1860 – 7 December 1929) was a British Army General in the First World War. He held the post of Commander-in-Chief, India in 1916–1920. From 1923 to 1929 he was the Governor of Gibra ...

. The memorial consists of Lutyens' War Cross design—a lozenge-shaped tapered shaft in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

approximately tall with short arms near the top of the shaft, linked to it with cyma moulding. The cross stands on a base of four uneven rectangular stone blocks which itself stands on an undercut square plinth, at the foot of which are three shallow stone steps. Its position at the end of the churchyard, on the junction of Brighton Road and Hambledon Road makes it a prominent landmark. The largest stone at the base of the cross bears the memorial's inscription: MCMXIV–MCMXIX / THEY COUNTED NOT / THEIR LIVES DEAR / UNTO THEMSELVES; the dates of the Second World War (MCMXXXIX–MCMXXXXV) were added at a later date below the first inscription. No names are inscribed on the memorial itself; these are instead recorded on a plaque inside the church. The memorial was designated a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

on 1 February 1991. Three other memorials by Lutyens stand in the same churchyard—to Julia Jekyll (Gertrude's mother, died 1895);

Francis McLaren Francis Walter Stafford McLaren (16 June 1886 – 30 August 1917) was a British Member of Parliament killed in the First World War in a flying accident. Career A younger son of Charles McLaren, 1st Baron Aberconway, he attended Eton College, Et ...

MP (died 1917), who is commemorated on Lutyens'

Spalding War Memorial Spalding War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the gardens of Ayscoughfee Hall (pronounced ) in Spalding, Lincolnshire, in eastern England. It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. The proposal for a memorial to Spalding ...

; and a joint memorial to Gertrude, her brother Sir Herbert Jekyll, and his wife Dame

Agnes Jekyll Dame Agnes Lowndes Jekyll, ( Graham; 12 October 1861 – 28 January 1937) was a Scottish-born British artist, writer and philanthropist. The daughter of William Graham, Liberal MP for Glasgow (1865–1874) and patron of the Pre-Rapha ...

(died 1932–1937); all are grade II listed. The war memorial has significant group value with the other memorials and with St John's Church, which is itself a grade II* listed building. In November 2015, as part of the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens's war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

list entries were updated and expanded. As part of this process, the Busbridge memorial was upgraded from grade II to grade II*.

References

* {{reflist, 30em World War I memorials in England World War II memorials in England Monuments and memorials in Surrey Grade II* listed monuments and memorials Grade II* listed buildings in Surrey Busbridge, Surrey Works of Edwin Lutyens in England War memorials by Edwin Lutyens 1922 sculptures Military history of Surrey

Background

History and design

See also

References