68 Dartmouth History The ensuing argument was typical of that happening


everywhere – what were memorials for? Should they provide practical benefits to the living, or focus on the dead? Should they be funded by the rates, or by voluntary subscription? How could it be ensured that any memorial was permanent? Who would look after it? How could different religious views be accommodated? What would the men “who had gone west”, as one man put it, have wanted? Eventually agreement was reached on a twenty-


foot granite obelisk, inscribed with the names of the fallen, located on the New Ground. There was no central source of information for the names – the Town Clerk drew up a list based largely on information from the Dartmouth Chronicle. The list was published in the paper, and, though incomplete, helped us one hundred years later to confirm the identities of many of the people named on the memorial. During 1920, as the churches put up their memorials,


contributions towards the town’s trickled in. This was not unusual – the post-war years were hard, and many communities struggled to raise enough money. But gradually concern grew – other towns now had their memorials, where was Dartmouth’s? By October, funds raised totalled £240, a shortfall of £320. Some said the shortfall was because people disliked the obelisk, called by one man “an old heathen thing”; a cross was proposed instead. At a public meeting, there were 21 votes for a cross, 18 against. The view that obelisks were “pagan” or “heathen” was expressed in similar meetings elsewhere in Devon; on the other hand, some places specifically chose them. After this, the Committee decided to proceed imme-


diately with whatever money was available. In January 1921, a “Devon cross”, as it was described, made of granite and 15 ft tall, was ordered from a local monu-


About the Dartmouth History Research Group


The Dartmouth History Research Group researches and records the history of Dartmouth and surrounding villages. If you’re interested in Dartmouth’s rich history, have a look at their many publications (available in the Community Bookshop, the Museum, or directly from the DHRG); at their website http://www.dartmouth.org. uk or go along to one of their meetings – dates are on the home page. It costs nothing to join and new members are always welcome.


mental mason, F W Gullet, of Victoria Road. A final list of names was published in the Dartmouth Chronicle – thirty names were added at this point. It appears there was no discussion about who was “suitable”; if relatives wanted a name on the memorial, it went on the list. After a last-minute disagreement about its exact


location, the War Memorial was put up where it is now and unveiled with much ceremony by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) on 18th May 1921. Despite the controversy at the time, it remains the focus of the town’s commemoration of those who fell in the Great War, and all subsequent conflicts.


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