Memorials to Animals

The Scottish National War Memorial commemorates the birds and animals used by the armed forces during the First World War in a series of animal and heraldic carvings on the south front of the Scottish National War Memorial. These and the lion and the unicorn at the entrance of the memorial and the series of roundels inside the memorial commemorating the animals were sculpted by Phyllis Mary Bone ARSA, RSA. She was born on 15 February 1894 in Hornby, Lancashire, the daughter of Dr D J M Bone. Phyllis was educated at St George's High School in Edinburgh and then at Edinburgh College of Art (1912-18). In Edinburgh, she quickly established herself as an accomplished sculptor of animal subjects. She received several substantial commissions for architectural works in Edinburgh.

The RSPCA Animals War Memorial was created at the Dispensary in Kilburn, north-west London, so that there was a memorial that would also benefit living animals. The animal clinic was formally opened on Thursday, 10 November 1932, although it had already been treating animals for 13 months, and is still in operation today as the RSPCA Kilburn (Animal War Memorial) Clinic. The building features a striking bronze sculpture and two engraved Portland stone plaques dedicated to all the animals whose lives were sacrificed during the First World War. The sculpture over the building’s entrance was designed by Frederick Brook Hitch who won a competition run by the RSPCA and The Royal Society of British Sculptors (RBS) for the best memorial design.

It features just some of the types of animals that saw action and gave service – horses, mules, oxen, dogs, elephants, camels and pigeons. The stone plaques on either side of the entrance feature the memorial's inscriptions. The other plaque reads:

1914 – 1918

This tablet records the deaths by enemy action, disease or accident of 484,143 horses, mules, camels and bullocks, and of many hundreds of dogs, carrier pigeons and other creatures on the various fronts during the Great War. It also records the fact that in France alone 725,216 sick and wounded animals were treated in the veterinary hospitals provided by the RSPCA. The Animals in War Memorial at Park Lane, London is a striking memorial to all the animals and other creatures that have been caught up in wars and have served, suffered and perished as a result.

After a long and challenging nationwide fundraising operation to raise the £1 million or so needed, the Portland stone and cast-bronze memorial - designed by David Backhouse, one of Britain's leading sculptors - was unveiled on 24 November 2004, by Princess Anne, on its grassy site in central Park Lane, London. The fund will provide for its maintenance in perpetuity.

The inscription carved on the memorial reads:

ANIMALS IN WAR

This memorial is dedicated to all the animals that served and died alongside British and Allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time.

They had no choice.

On the rear of the memorial are these words:

Many and various animals were employed to support British and Allied Forces in wars and campaigns over the centuries, and as a result millions died. From

the pigeon to the elephant, they all played a vital role in every region of the world in the cause of human freedom.

Their contribution must never be forgotten.

Woodbank Memorial Park, Stockport was created in 1921 when Sir Thomas Rowbotham, a former mayor of Stockport donated the Park to the townspeople in honour of the Stockport men who fell in World War 1. Although the park was registered with the UK National Inventory of War Memorials as a memorial park, there was nothing in the park itself to acknowledge its purpose.

As with other, similar sites in the country, most local people had forgotten, or never knew about, its history.

When a council officer located a sum of money from which the interest could be used only in the park, the group known as the official 'Friends of Woodbank Park' was asked how the money should be spent.

A tree had been cut into a totem a couple of years earlier in the hope that funding might become available for a sculpture, but at the time it wasn't a priority and nothing further happened. When the new money was offered it was insufficient for other, larger projects and so it was decided to develop the sculpture. It didn't take the animal lovers in the group long to decide that the subject should be animals that had died in wars. That would be something unique to the park. Recognising its memorial status, it acknowledged the sacrifice made by the innocents who did not volunteer to die.

The memorial takes the form of a chainsaw carving, situated on the park's main drive, not far from the entrance. The principal animal shown is a horse at the top. There is also a mule, a carrier pigeon, a cat, an Alsatian, and a mongrel dog that found people trapped by the Blitz bombings - as well as a dove of peace.

The inscription reads - 'They died in war - they still serve in conflict'. The sculpture is over 16 feet tall. Many animals were put to sleep during the war because the owners feared they wouldn't be able to feed them. Many were taken by the Government for the war effort. An Alsatian like the one on the memorial was taken during the war. The owners got their dog back at the end but the dog was unable to adjust to being a family pet again after the traumatic experience.

HMS Formidable was sunk by two torpedoes from a German submarine 20 miles off Start Point at 2 am on 1 January 1915. The first torpedo hit the number one boiler port side; a second explosion caused the ship to list heavily to starboard. Huge waves thirty feet high lashed the stricken ship, with strong winds, rain and hail, sinking it in less than two hours.

Captain Loxley, his second-in-command, Commander Ballard, and the signaller stayed at their posts throughout, sending flares and rockets off at regular intervals. There was no panic, the men waiting calmly for the lifeboats to be lowered.

Someone played ragtime on the piano, others sang. The Chaplain, Reverend G Brooke Robinson, went down with the ship by risking his life going below to find cigarettes. Suddenly the ship gave a tremendous lurch, the Captain shouted, 'Lads, this is the last, all hands for themselves, and God bless you and guide you to safety'. He then walked to the forebridge, lit a cigarette and, with his terrier Bruce on duty at his side, waited for the end, in true Royal Naval tradition.

St Jude’s Church, Hampstead, London, has what may have been the first of very few war memorials to horses.

According to the Parish Paper the idea for the memorial seems to have come from the first vicar, the Reverend Basil Bourchier who, as a forces chaplain in the Great War, had seen their suffering. In 1926 he was offered a bronze of a war-horse moulded by Charles Lutyens (the late father of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the architect of the church) which had been exhibited at the Royal Academy. Largely, it seems, through contributions from the congregation the bronze was purchased and an accompanying plaque and wooden plinth commissioned.

The memorial was unveiled on Easter Sunday, 4 April 4 1926 by Miss Frances Jeffcock during 'Festal Mattins' at 11.30am and dedicated by the vicar. (Parish Papers 737, 739, 740). The plaque reads In grateful and reverent memory of the Empire's horses (some 375,000) who fell in the Great War (1914-1918) most obediently, and often most painfully, they died. "Faithful unto death not one of them is forgotten before God". Easter 1926.

Unfortunately the bronze itself was later stolen and so what remains today, on the wall by the main west door, is the original plaque and a new (1970) bronze relief of a war horse by Rosemary Proctor, daughter of William Maxwell Rennie, the third vicar. The old photograph (below) shows the original horse on its plinth (designed by Edwin Lutyens) with the plaque attached. The memorial is standing to the left of the St George's altar on the north transept wall.

The icon, now at the entrance to the Lady Chapel, is on the left, with the candle stand, now at the back of the church, beneath it. The painting behind the altar has not been identified. The presence of the painting commemorating Michael Rennie in the City of Benares lifeboat helps date the photograph probably to the early 1950s.

The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial commemorates the men of the Australian Light Horse Brigade and New Zealand Mounted Rifles who died between 1916 and 1918 in Egypt, Palestine and Syria. It sits on ANZAC Parade, in Canberra, Australia. The original version of this monument was in Port Said in Egypt, and was mostly destroyed during the 1956 Suez War. A piece from the original memorial, a shattered horse's head, was brought back to Australia and used as part of a new statue honouring animals who have served with the Australian military.

Desert Mounted Corps Memorial to ANZAC troops, located on ANZAC Parade, Canberra

References: The Scottish War Memorials Project; Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_War_Memorial; www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/ Australian War Memorial St Jude’s Church, Hampstead, London