Summary

First World War memorial. Erected 1921 by the Municipal Borough of Darwen. Bronze sculpture by LF Roslyn.

Description

First World War memorial. Erected 1921 by the Municipal Borough of Darwen. Bronze sculpture by LF Roslyn.

MATERIALS: Bronze statue on sandstone pedestal.

DESCRIPTION: The memorial stands on a paved five-stepped platform near the north-east entrance to Bold Venture Park (laid out 1889-1914), where it can be viewed to its greatest advantage against the backdrop of a lake surrounded by mature trees.

The memorial consists of a tall, square sandstone ashlar pedestal on a stepped base, surmounted by a statue of winged Victory standing on a globe, holding a laurel wreath aloft in her left hand and an olive branch in her right. The pedestal has a deep cornice, and a torus and cavetto moulding above the plinth.
The front (south) face of the pedestal is inscribed: IN GRATEFUL / MEMORY / AND TO THE HONOUR / OF / OVER 1200 CITIZENS / OF / THIS TOWN WHO GAVE / THEIR LIVES IN THE / GREAT WAR / 1914 – 1918 / AND THOSE WHO DIED / IN THE WAR OF / 1939 – 1945. Above this is a carved relief of the Darwen Borough arms flanked by inverted torches.

The west, north and east faces have inset bronze reliefs of figures comprising, respectively, an infantryman, a nurse and a seaman, each panel with a bronze laurel wreath above and a carved inscription beneath: the soldier representing HONOUR, the nurse HUMANITY and the seaman FREEDOM. Dress and weaponry are depicted in detail.

The front face of the plinth is inscribed: LEST WE FORGET; the west: IS IT NOTHING TO YOU / ALL YE WHO PASS BY (a quotation from Lamentations 1:12); the north: THEY DIED NOT IN VAIN; and the east: THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE.

The sides and rear of the platform are enclosed by a series of short tapering posts, four to the sides and two to the rear, the terminal posts with carved lions. The intervening chains have been removed.

Darwen War Memorial was listed at Grade II in 1984. It stand within Bold Venture Park, a Grade II registered landscape.

History

The aftermath of the First World War saw an unprecedented wave of public commemoration with tens of thousands of memorials erected across the country. One such memorial was designed and sculpted by Louis Frederic Roslyn, and erected in Darwen in 1921.

Darwen War memorial was erected by public subscription and unveiled on 27 September 1921.

Louis Frederick Roslyn (1878-1940) was a London-born sculptor of German ancestry. At the Royal Academy schools he was awarded the Landseer scholarship and a travelling scholarship, becoming a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1914, and a Fellow in 1923. In 1917 he joined the Royal Flying Corps at the School of Military Aeronautics, around which time he changed his name from Roselieb to Roslyn. Roslyn was one of the most prolific sculptors of British war memorials, which include three others in the vicinity of Darwen: Oswaldtwistle, Rawtenstall and Haslingden; Port Talbot (Wales), Portstewart (Northern Ireland) and Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean.

Darwen War Memorial was listed at Grade II on 27 September 1984. It was damaged by vandals in 2014. The damage was repaired shortly afterwards.

Reasons for Listing

Darwen War Memorial is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Sculptural interest: a distinctive and highly accomplished example of the work of the prominent sculptor LF Roslyn with finely modelled and detailed bronze reliefs and statuary;
* Rarity: it is unusual in depicting a female nurse with equal prominence to servicemen;
* Architectural interest: a well-composed war memorial which takes maximum advantage of its landscaped setting;
* Historic interest: as an eloquent witness to the tragic impact of world events on the local community, and the sacrifices it made in the conflicts of the C20;
* Group value: the memorial occupies a prominent position in Bold Venture Park, a Grade II registered landscape.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26328056

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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