War
Memorial Puzzle Solved
|
329
gave £477
A
neatly hand-written subscription list records
329 donations totalling £477 1s 6d.
59
donations were of £2 or more, 32 between £1
and a guinea, 30 of between 10s and half
a guinea, 59 between 3s and 10s, 57 of 2s
6d, 35 of 2s, 4 of 1s 6d, 35 of 1s, 15 of
6d and 2 of 3d.
The
chairman for the Finance Committee, George
Dyott Willmot, and Mrs G D Willmot headed
the list, each donating £50.
|
71
never returned
The memorial is shorter than it was following a gale on March 17 1947,
which blew down the original ornate cross.
It
records on the west face the names of 55 Coleshill
men who died in the 1914-18 conflict, including
the two brothers Willmot, whose father led the
drive for funds to commemorate them (see above
and click on the blue links to see their records
at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission).
On
the south face are 16 men who died in the 1939-45
war.
A
book containing their names is at the market
hall.
|
Box
held pieces to war memorial puzzle
The contents of an envelope, which lay forgotten in a metal box in Coleshill
church for over 80 years have added more pieces to the historical jigsaw
of the town’s war memorials.
Very little
information is publicly available about the memorial,
but when the envelope addressed to E W Townsend
Esq,
Coleshill, near Birmingham, and marked "war
memorial" was emptied, the original sketches,
the faculty (church legal document) authorising
its erection, and details of who subscribed to
it were revealed.
|
Fundraiser
lost two sons.
Central
to the drive for finance to pay for the memorial
was a letter (right) signed by George Dyott Willmot,
chairman for Finance Committee
He
was clearly the right man for the job. His 19 years
old son, Lieutenant
John Dyott Willmot of the 6th Battalion Worcester
Regiment died in France in July 1915. Another son,
19 years old Second Lieutenant
Robert Dyott Willmot of the Second Battalion
King's Royal Rifle Corps died in February 1918.
On
June 4 1919, a public meeting at the Institute
decided "that a monument (the form to be decided
later) should be erected to the memory of the Men
of the Parish of Coleshill who gave their lives
for their Country during the European War".
The
site near the churchyard gates offered the most
suitable site. The letter called for voluntary
subscriptions to meet the estimated £500
cost of the cross. It was “an occasion when
all should, in gratitude to our brave soldiers
and sailors, make some sacrifice to perpetuate
their memory".
Headed
Coleshill War Memorials, it reports "a widely
manifested wish of the Parish that a Public Hall
should also be erected, and the War Memorial Committee
are making enquiries as to the possibility of this."
A
tear off slip and another form listing casualties
of the war were to be collected.
|
|
|
|
|
