THE COMMUNITY WAR MEMORIAL
In 1917 the Mathern War Charity was set up. Public subscriptions and fund raising events enabled the sending of parcels to Mathern servicemen including prisoners of war. When finally they returned a Welcome Home event and dinner were held. Presents were also provided. The committee then decided to devote the residue of funds towards construction of the Village Memorial Cross. The site – the corner of a field – was given by Mr A T Lewis who had recently inherited the St Pierre estate. The eventual cost was £290 with the railings added as an afterthought from a £9 surplus in the fund.
The actual Memorial was a result of the well established collaboration between Messrs Francis and Tipping. Eric Francis was a Chepstow architect who had served in the trenches as a member of the Artists’ Rifles. H Avray Tipping was a landscape designer of national repute who had come to live locally. Their most obvious project locally had been Mounton House, 1911-14 – see the glowing report in the recently published “Buildings of Wales” series. Construction was by Davis Bros of Brabourne, Worcester, the base being of Bramley Fall stone and the cross of Hollington stone. It was dedicated on Whit Sunday 1920 by Archdeacon Green, who later became Archbishop of Wales.
Mathern War Charity having been wound up, maintenance was rather informal until after WW II when it was placed in the care of the Parish Council, now Mathern Community Council.
MEMORIALS IN THE THREE CHURCHES
Separate Memorial Boards were set up in the parish churches of Mathern and St Pierre. Both boards listed those who served but survived as well as those who died. At Mounton a single plaque was installed for their one lost serviceman of WW I. Mounton also lost a single man in WW II and the family provided an altar screen in his memory.
MATHERN
The names of the dead are listed on a beautifully embossed Roll of Honour made of lead. Their surviving fellow servicemen are inscribed on either side. It is quite a masterpiece.
The individual memorial of Captain Stanton is to be found at the back of the nave
ST PIERRE
The St Pierre memorial is obviously more humble than the corresponding one at Mathern but very dignified and appropriate to the scale of this small and ancient church.
MOUNTON
The attractive plaque in memory of Ernest Prickett includes a green dragon which unfortunately does not show clearly in our photograph in section 18.
The very tasteful altar screen in memory of Ian Liddell includes these words of his mother which seem entirely fitting to his sparkling personality:
“Into the mosaic of victory I place this precious jewel – my son.”