A design for the Memorial Seat was first published in the Parish magazine in October 1917, and approved at a public meeting in the Parish Hall in the same month.
“It must be understood that the Memorial is to be a public Memorial, in a public place, irrespective of all party or creed. … The position suggested is at the angle of the Bath and Woodstock roads, would be given to the public. This is perhaps the most prominent site in the Parish from the fact of its being a stopping place for the motor omnibus, and for this reason the seat that forms part of the Memorial will serve a useful purpose. Freedom of public access is an essential attribute, and the hand of a mischievous boy must be guarded against by making use of a material that will resist his pencil or knife.”
The original scheme, designed by Mr. Inigo Triggs (whose mother lived within the Parish), consisted of a central block of unpolished granite, with a semicircular seat. The central section was to have a sword, wreath and palm carved in low relief, surmounted by a leaden cinerary urn, partly gilt, and with a gilt flame issuing from the lid. The committee appointed at the public meeting to oversee the project and authorise the final design clearly considered the hand of the mischievous boy further with considerable prescience. The funerary urn was the principal casualty of the committee’s work. The seat was installed in due course after the War’s end. The original bronze nameplates were unfortunately stolen in the 1960s, and replaced with engraved stone replacements when the seat was moved to its present position to the West of the Parish Hall gates. Thus, several of the names were re-engraved incorrectly, causing some difficulty in identifying them in the course of the Centenary project.
All the names are of those of the Fallen whose families (and in a few cases friends) lived or had lived within the Bedford Park estate, and submitted them to a list compiled at the Bedford Park Club.
They are:
| Dudley Cecil ALDIN Cyril F AUSTIN Rowland Hurst BOURNE Alfred H COATSWORTH L Drummond COLLINS Oliphant DOWN Arthur Edward FOSTER George FULTON Conrad Michael GIBSON Arthur Rowlett GILL John Henry GRAYSON Kenneth HALLWARD Archibald HOLLAND Kenneth KEMP Arthur Greenwell LAX |
Noel Oliff LEE Norman LITTLE Harold LONGHURST Derek LUTYENS Reginald Walter MCKWELL Maxwell MALLALUE Clive Guise MOORES Peter NASH Lionel F C NEILL Frank NEWINGTON George Constantine PAUL Rolly PIFFARD Ivor R POGOSE Hubert Arthur POPE Albert ROBINSON |
Wilfred ROWE G Philip ROWLANDSON Charles William SCHWABEN Henry Robert SCHWABEN Carlos STEVENSON C Cecil Brooks WARD Arthur Brian WHITE C Edgar A WILSON C Ernest BROOKS Hubert C deZ COLLIER Maurice CLIFT Laurence T WILSON Joseph George WOOLF Richard F C YORKE |