St Clement's Church Memorial Panels

St Clement's Church Memorial Panels. Photo by Pat O'Mara.
St Clement's Church Memorial Panels. Photo by Pat O'Mara.
Address 
Redbridge Town Hall
128-142 High Road
Ilford
RDB
IG1 1DD

The St. Clement’s Church memorial commemorates 285 ‘men of the parish of Great Ilford’ who died in the First World War.

In 1916, as casualties among parishioners mounted, the church council agreed to a permanent commemoration to honour those who had lost their lives. A committee was formed of church warders Messrs Edwin Hodnett and A. W Green, together with a member of each of the daughter churches (St. Mary, St. Andrew and St. Alban), and with C. A. Nicholls of the London County & Westminster Bank as fund treasurer.

The committee decided upon a brass tablet in addition to four stained glass windows depicting St. Clement, St. Mary, St. Andrew and St. Alban. The criteria for inclusion on the St. Clement’s memorial was that the deceased must have been an active member of the congregation - something which led to the exclusion of some of the fallen sons’ of church members.

When the daughter churches expressed a wish to erect their own memorials to their own congregants, St. Clement’s Church Council stated that the mother church was the only suitable place to honour all of the parish fallen. The Reverend Ottaway of St. Clements, however, stated that if the daughter churches wished to finance their own memorials they must also be willing to fund the parish memorial in the mother church.

The daughter churches proceeded with plans to fund their own memorials, choosing not to abide by the same criteria: that the deceased must have been an active member of the congregation. It should be noted that as a result of several churches having their own commemorations, many of those named on the St. Clement’s memorial are duplicated elsewhere such as at St. Alban’s, St. Andrew’s and St. Mary’s.

After the war, fundraising began in earnest and on Remembrance Sunday 1919, the memorial windows at St. Clement’s were unveiled by the Bishop of Chelmsford.

On Remembrance Sunday the following year, a roll of honour bearing the names of 285 of the fallen was unveiled at a total cost of £1,700. The roll of honour was presented on an ornately carved oak screen comprising six panels, each topped with carved finials. One panel component was inscribed with a dedication referring to the memorial windows.

Following the Second World War, the congregation of St. Clement’s dwindled and it proved financially untenable to maintain the building in Park Avenue. In 1977, the church moved to Cecil Hall in Granville Road, less than a hundred metres away, and the old St. Clement’s Church was demolished to make way for an apartment block. The memorial oak panels were re-erected in Cecil Hall and many of the windows (including those commemorating the dead of the First World War) were removed from the old church and superimposed on windows in the new church.

In 2002, St. Clement’s closed and the memorial panels were moved into temporary storage under the care of the Essex Branch of the Western Front Association. Three years later, the six upper-panel components were re-erected in one of the corridors at Redbridge Town Hall. The size of the memorial did not permit the lower section to be installed and so, apart from one central panel, the remaining five lower panel components (which were) were disposed of by permission of the Church.

The central panel, which was retained, bore an inscription which referred to the memorial windows at St. Clement’s church. As it would not have made sense to include it alongside the roll of honour, the plaque was subsequently donated to Redbridge Museum. This plaque is now all that remains of the original window memorial.

Sources:

Based on research by Patrick O’Mara

Information also kindly provided by Foster Summerson, former Chairman of the Essex Branch of the Western Front Association.

The Great War Memory and Ritual: Commemoration in the City and East London, 1916-1939 by Mark Connelly, 2002

Find out more...

Find out more about some of the individuals featured on this memorial by selecting from one of the names below.

To view a complete list of every individual commemorated on this memorial, please click on the memorial inscription link above.

Biography available.

Name Regiment Year of death
Alan Simpson Carte London Regiment (The Rangers) 1917
Albert Chandler Royal Army Service Corps 1919
Albert Earler 9th (Queen's Royal) Lancers 1919
Albert Edward Lester London Regiment 1918
Albert George Swabey Border Regiment 1917
Albert H Wilde Royal Engineers 1918
Albert Henry Archer Essex Regiment 1915
Albert Henry Herring Royal Air Force 1918
Albert Henry Strutt Royal Garrison Artillery 1918
Alexander Collie Royal Engineers 1918
Alfred Comben Dorsetshire Regiment 1917
Alfred De Lisle Sanders London Regiment 1916
Alfred Edward Turner Mercantile Marine 1917
Alfred James Echevarri Mercantile Marine 1915
Alfred L Cox Royal Field Artillery 1918
Alfred Phillip Wootton Australian Field Artillery 1919
Alfred Richard Totts King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry 1916
Alfred Webb Essex Regiment 1917
Andrew Wanless Mercantile Marine 1917
Andrew Youngson Greig Mclauchlan Manchester Regiment 1918
Archer Heath Butterfield Royal Navy 1917
Archibald Bernard Claridge London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1917
Arthur Clarence Bouts Essex Regiment 1918
Arthur Donald Greenwood Bedfordshire Regiment 1918
Arthur Edwin Bowman Royal Field Artillery 1916
Arthur F Pankhurst Essex Regiment 1917
Arthur Herbert Fisk East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) 1918
Arthur Leslie Cecil London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1915
Arthur Montague Field Leicestershire Regiment 1918
Arthur Rubert Dunn Worcestershire Regiment 1917
Arthur Thomas Handley London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1917
Arthur Walker King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) 1918
Arthur Yorke Latreille London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) 1916
Bernard Anniss Davey Essex Regiment 1916
Bernard Richards Lee Royal Naval Air Service 1916
Bert Redshaw Essex Regiment 1916
Bertram Archibald Cole London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1917
Bertram Henry Maylin The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 1918
C W Finch Royal Garrison Artillery 1917
Cebert Douglas Gibbons Essex Regiment 1916
Cecil Victor Thompson East Lancashire Regiment 1917
Charles Alexander Mitchell Scots Guards 1918
Charles Edmund Wootton Australian Light Horse 1915
Charles Edward Fuller Royal Horse Artillery 1917
Charles Frederick Hickmott East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) 1916
Charles Jeffery London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) 1918
Charles Richard Draper Essex Regiment 1916
Charles Wiffen Wiltshire Regiment 1917
Charles William Ogden Essex Regiment 1917
Charles Winwood Trimming King's Royal Rifle Corps 1915
Clarence George Willmott Essex Regiment 1915
Clarence Mortimer Hodgson Durham Light Infantry 1916
Claude D Fearn London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
Claude Leslie Harvey South Lancashire Regiment 1916
Clement Cater Suffolk Regiment 1917
Cyril Arthur Sparling Hose The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 1916
Cyril George Treby East Surrey Regiment 1918
Cyril Martin Cassidy King's Royal Rifle Corps 1915
Cyril Robert Hidden London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
David Craig Mackness The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 1918
Donald Cecil Rich Essex Regiment 1917
Donald Ernest Stephens Royal Air Force 1918
Douglas George Challoner Royal Fusiliers 1917
E J Truelove Gordon Highlanders 1918
Edgar Albert Armstrong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve 1915
Edward Clarence Page London Regiment (Kensington's) formerley London Regiment (Artists' Rifles) 1917
Edward Harvey Higgins London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1916
Edward John Sorrell Hertfordshire Regiment 1917
Edwin Cyril Challoner Grenadier Guards 1916
Edwin Roy Hodnett London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles) 1916
Ernest Hayden Essex Regiment 1917
Ernest Henry Skinner Cambridgeshire Regiment 1918
Ernest Hugh Simonds Royal Fusiliers 1918
Ernest John Bagnall Army Service Corps 1918
Ernest Vaughan Martin Essex Regiment 1915
Eustace John Krog East Yorkshire Regiment 1918
Francis Leonard Rees Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve 1917
Frank Arthur Cresswell King's Own Scottish Borderers 1917
Frank Greest Gaisford London Regiment (First Surrey Rifles) 1918
Frank Thomas Elliott Essex Regiment 1917
Frederick Andrew Robinson Tank Corps 1918
Frederick Benjamin Bennett London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1915
Frederick Charles Morris Essex Regiment 1916
Frederick F Godley Suffolk Regiment 1917
Frederick J Mickley Army Service Corps 1918
Frederick John Brown London Regiment 1916
Frederick John Harding Essex Regiment 1917
Frederick Miller London Regiment (London Irish Rifles) 1915
Frederick Sampson Essex Regiment 1917
Frederick Walter Dinham London Regiment (City of London Rifles) 1916
Frederick William A Davis Royal Flying Corps 1917
Frederick William Henry Bolland Royal Fusiliers 1917
Frederick William Simmons Leicestershire Regiment 1918
Frederick William Walker South Wales Borderers 1918
G Dawson Royal Garrison Artillery 1918
G W Ockenden Norfolk Regiment 1917
Geoffrey Randell Howes Essex Regiment 1917
George Alwyn Penrose The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) 1917
George Henry James Mckelvey Middlesex Regiment 1917
George W Morton Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) 1918
George William Barlow Royal Engineers 1917
George William Goldsmith Northamptonshire Regiment 1918
George William Stuart London Regiment (London Scottish) 1916
George Willmot Childs Bedfordshire Regiment 1918
Gregory Albert Drake Middlesex Regiment 1916
H L Dunn City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) 1916
Harold Edward Jones Royal Fusiliers 1916
Harold Ross Timpson London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) 1918
Harold Sidney Wootton London Regiment (City of London Rifles) 1915
Harry Varnals Spencer London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
Harry William Wright Gordon Highlanders 1915
Henry A Dinham London Regiment (City of London Rifles) 1915
Henry a.k.a Harry Kemble Bedfordshire Regiment 1918
Henry C Vaughan Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) 1917
Henry Chambers Whittingham London Regiment (The Rangers) 1915
Henry Edward F Brett London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1918
Henry J Morley Grenadier Guards 1915
Henry Robert Austin Bedfordshire Regiment 1917
Henry Silcock Essex Regiment 1915
Henry Sydney Shelton Royal Army Medical Corps 1918
Herbert Edwin Hawkins Essex Regiment 1916
Herbert George Bonham London Regiment 1916
Herbert James Burton London Regiment 1915
Herbert Musgrove Beck Royal Flying Corps 1918
Herbert Noel Field Bedfordshire Regiment 1917
Herbert Platt Royal Field Artillery 1918
Herbert Snow Barnes City of London Yeomanry (Rough Riders) 1916
Horace Edward Griggs Essex Regiment 1915
Horace Waller Essex Regiment 1916
Ivor Stanley Burgess Essex Regiment 1917
James Frederick Wynn London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1915
James Philip Lawrence North Staffordshire Regiment 1915
John Alfred Glover Mercantile Marine 1915
John Alfred Hoy Royal Navy 1914
John Dudley Sharland Royal Fusiliers 1916
John Ernest Salter Suffolk Regiment 1918
John H Alderton Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) 1918
John James Miller Cameron Highlanders 1917
John Silcock Essex Regiment 1917
John William Wilson Honourable Artillery Company 1917
Jonathan Walter Brice Australian Infantry, A.I.F.. 1915
Joseph Henry Lowe Machine Gun Corps (Infantry) 1918
Joseph Stephen Ward London Regiment 1916
Joseph Thomas Sinkins Essex Regiment 1918
Kenneth Herbert Fairweather London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) 1917
Laurence D'Arcy Stapley Suffolk Regiment 1916
Laurence Frederick Whitaker London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
Leon Frederick Rogers London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers) 1917
Leonard Alfred Robert Wheatley London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) 1916
Leonard John Gates Border Regiment 1917
Leonard Simpson Ling Norfolk Regiment 1917
Leonard William Blattman London Regiment (The Rangers) 1915
Leslie Arthur Bleaden London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
Leslie Ernest Joseph Andrade Stevens Sherwood Foresters (Notts and Derby Regiment) 1918
Leslie Gerald Stenning Essex Regiment 1915
Lionel a.k.a Billy Bleaden Royal Fusiliers 1916
Montague Smith Furness Royal Field Artillery 1917
Percival John Bottel London Regiment (Queen's Westminster Rifles) 1918
Percy Charles James Taunton Royal Garrison Artillery 1917
Percy Francis Hale Royal Fusiliers 1918
Percy Harry Samuel King Seaforth Highlanders 1918
Percy Philpot Armstrong Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve 1916
Reginald Eric Crooks Middlesex Regiment 1916
Reginald Evan Spencer London Regiment 1916
Reginald Frank Herring Canadian Infantry 1915
Reginald George Bell Seaforth Highlanders 1917
Reuben Alfred Hope Essex Regiment 1918
Robert Eke Royal Fusiliers 1915
Robert Guy Cook Worcestershire Regiment 1917
Robert Thomas Elliott Essex Regiment 1917
Robert Wiltshire Royal Fusiliers 1918
Rowland William Hill Royal Field Artillery 1917
Samuel Robert Dudley Royal Army Medical Corps 1915
Sidney Abrahams Lancashire Fusiliers 1917
Sidney Charles Evans Essex Regiment 1915
Sidney H Inglis Royal Flying Corps 1917
Sidney Herbert Walker Seaforth Highlanders 1915
Sidney Robert Butler Mercantile Marine 1917
Stanley E Penny Royal Fusiliers 1916
Stanley Henry Evans Seaforth Highlanders 1917
Stanley Wiseman Essex Regiment 1917
Thomas Alfred Williams Royal Field Artillery 1917
Thomas F Hunt Middlesex Regiment 1917
Thomas Harry Winyard Auckland Regiment, N.Z.E.F. 1917
Thomas Kusel Sursham London Regiment 1915
Thomas St. Clair Gifford Taylor Royal Flying Corps 1918
Trevor William Stuart Harris Royal Air Force 1918
W Clenshaw King's Royal Rifle Corps 1918
Walter Charles Hamblion Essex Regiment 1915
Walter John Butler London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles) 1916
Walter John Rogers London Regiment 1915
Walter Robert Aldous London Regiment (Kensingtons) 1916
Walter William James Cooper Royal Field Artillery 1918
Wilfrid John May West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own) 1917
William Fowler Royal Flying Corps 1916
William Frank Roper Royal Fusiliers 1918
William George Marlborough London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) 1916
William Goodliff Scotcher Royal Air Force 1918
William Harold Dice London Regiment (City of London Rifles) 1917
William John Roffey Border Regiment 1918
William John Sloan Essex Regiment 1917
William Richard Walker London Regiment (London Scottish) 1915
William St.Clair Royal Fusiliers 1918