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The '''Bank of England War Memorial''', in the internal Garden Court at the headquarters of the [[Bank of England]] in the [[City of London]], commemorates the bank's staff who were killed while serving in the [[First World War]] and [[Second World War]]. It includes a bronze sculpture by [[Richard Reginald Goulden]] portraying [[Saint Christopher]] carrying the [[Christ Child]], an unusual choice for a memorial sculpture. It became a Grade II [[listed building]] in 2017. The surrounding buildings of the bank are separately listed at Grade I.
==Background==
As the First World War was drawing to an end, a memorial committee of long-serving bank staff was established in November 1918 to raise funds for a memorial. A bound copy of the committee's minutes is held in the bank's archives. Suggestions were made to spend the funds on a variety of different projects, such as a memorial chapel, a memorial library and hall, almshouses, the endowment of university scholarships, or a stained glass window at the nearby church of [[St Margaret Lothbury]]. The committee decided on three memorials: a memorial service at [[Southwark Cathedral]] on 12 April 1919, endowing a bed at [[Guy's Hospital]], and commissioning a memorial cross at the bank. These plans were approved by the bank's court of directors.
After initially donating £1,000 in June 1919 to fund a bed at Astley Cooper Ward, a surgical accident ward at Guy's Hospital, the bank continued to raise funds for the hospital from 1919 to 1944, providing over £30,000 to endow a entire ward of 26 beds, Christopher Ward. The bank's St Christopher Health Fund still continues to fund medical treatment for bank staff.
Successful fundraising allowed the committee to recommend a more ambitious memorial structure than the intended memorial cross. The committee approached Sir [[George Frampton]], and he introduced them to [[Richard Reginald Goulden]] as a promising sculptor. Goulden was commissioned to design and make the memorial sculpture. Goulden's first design was approved by the committee but rejected by the bank's court of directors, but his second design, portraying St Christopher carrying the Holy Child, was accepted. The design reflected the location, as the bank's garden was the site of the church of [[St Christopher le Stocks]] until it was demolished in 1781, and Saint Christopher is the bank's [[patron saint]]; and it also reflects the spirit of service and self-sacrifice embodied by [[Saint Christopher]]. The materials for the sculpture cost £750, with a payment to Goulden of £105. A further fundraising gathered £300 to inscribe the names of the war dead at the base of the statue.
==Description==
Goulden's lifesize bronze statue portrays a man standing on a rock, carrying a child on his shoulder, with the left foot advanced as if walking. They man and child are holding hands, with the man wearing only a loincloth, and the child similarly naked. The group represents [[Saint Christopher]] at the edge of a stream, carrying the [[Christ Child]]. An inscription around the bottom of the rock reads: <small>TO THE COMRADES / WHO, AT DUTY'S CALL, CROSSED THE DARK WATERS TO / THE FURTHER SHORE 1914-1919</small>.
The sculpture is mounted on a large rectangular block of [[Portland stone]] as a plinth, on three stone steps. Set into the front of the plinth is a bronze cross, and the other three sides of the plinth each bear a bronze plaque listing the 71 names of the bank's war dead. The statue on its plinth stands around tall.
The sculpture was unveiled by the [[Governor of the Bank of England]] [[Montagu Norman, 1st Baron Norman|Montagu Norman]] in a prominent position in the Bank's garden, in an open internal courtyard, at a short ceremony at 4pm on 11 November 1921, at which it was dedicated by the [[Archdeacon of London]] [[Ernest Holmes (priest)|Ernest Holmes]], with two bandsmen from the [[Grenadier Guards]] playing the [[Last Post]] and [[Reveille]].
A new committee was established in 1945 to commission elements to commemorate the war dead from the Second World War, again using funds raised from the staff donations. Rather than commissioning a new monument, modest elements were added to the existing memorial by [[Alexander Scott]]: set into the paving before the sculpture is a circular raised bronze plaque about in diameter, inscribed with a wreath around the words: <small> TO THE / MEMORY / OF THOSE WHO / CROSSED THE / SAME WATERS / 1939-1945</small>. The memorial was rededicated on 20 October 1948 at a ceremony attended by the Bank's Governor [[Thomas Catto, 1st Baron Catto]], the [[Bishop of Stepney]] [[Robert Moberly (bishop)|Robert Moberly]], and by the former Governor Montagu Norman.
It is visible from the Bank's entrance hall, and the offices that surround it. The names of the bank's staff who served in the First World War are also inscribed in the entrance hall, with the dead marked with red crosses, opposite the names of the 65 war dead from the Second World War. Several of the bank's war dead are also commemorated by bronze plaques in other buildings that were Bank of England offices, in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle,
The memorial became a Grade II [[listed building]] in 2017.
==References==
* [https://ift.tt/30UqnhD Bank of England War Memorial], National Heritage List for England, Historic England
* [https://ift.tt/3kKiIu0 Memorial to Fallen Colleagues 1914-18], Bank of England archive
* [https://ift.tt/3fPc6XK The Bank Remembers: 100 Years On, 1914-2018], Bank of England archive
* [https://ift.tt/3gWUkmC Bank of England, St Christopher statue], War Memorials Online
* [https://ift.tt/3apfbg2 Ban of England - St Christopher statue], War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
* [https://ift.tt/3iC65iT "War memorials in organizational memory: a case study of the Bank of England"], Victoria Barnes & Lucy Newton (2018), ''Management & Organizational History', 13:4, 309-333, https://ift.tt/3kLA89B
[[Category:1921 sculptures]]
[[Category:Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Grade II listed buildings in the City of London]]
[[Category:Grade II listed monuments and memorials]]
[[Category:Statues in London]]
[[Category:World War I memorials in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:World War II memorials in England]]
==Background==
As the First World War was drawing to an end, a memorial committee of long-serving bank staff was established in November 1918 to raise funds for a memorial. A bound copy of the committee's minutes is held in the bank's archives. Suggestions were made to spend the funds on a variety of different projects, such as a memorial chapel, a memorial library and hall, almshouses, the endowment of university scholarships, or a stained glass window at the nearby church of [[St Margaret Lothbury]]. The committee decided on three memorials: a memorial service at [[Southwark Cathedral]] on 12 April 1919, endowing a bed at [[Guy's Hospital]], and commissioning a memorial cross at the bank. These plans were approved by the bank's court of directors.
After initially donating £1,000 in June 1919 to fund a bed at Astley Cooper Ward, a surgical accident ward at Guy's Hospital, the bank continued to raise funds for the hospital from 1919 to 1944, providing over £30,000 to endow a entire ward of 26 beds, Christopher Ward. The bank's St Christopher Health Fund still continues to fund medical treatment for bank staff.
Successful fundraising allowed the committee to recommend a more ambitious memorial structure than the intended memorial cross. The committee approached Sir [[George Frampton]], and he introduced them to [[Richard Reginald Goulden]] as a promising sculptor. Goulden was commissioned to design and make the memorial sculpture. Goulden's first design was approved by the committee but rejected by the bank's court of directors, but his second design, portraying St Christopher carrying the Holy Child, was accepted. The design reflected the location, as the bank's garden was the site of the church of [[St Christopher le Stocks]] until it was demolished in 1781, and Saint Christopher is the bank's [[patron saint]]; and it also reflects the spirit of service and self-sacrifice embodied by [[Saint Christopher]]. The materials for the sculpture cost £750, with a payment to Goulden of £105. A further fundraising gathered £300 to inscribe the names of the war dead at the base of the statue.
==Description==
Goulden's lifesize bronze statue portrays a man standing on a rock, carrying a child on his shoulder, with the left foot advanced as if walking. They man and child are holding hands, with the man wearing only a loincloth, and the child similarly naked. The group represents [[Saint Christopher]] at the edge of a stream, carrying the [[Christ Child]]. An inscription around the bottom of the rock reads: <small>TO THE COMRADES / WHO, AT DUTY'S CALL, CROSSED THE DARK WATERS TO / THE FURTHER SHORE 1914-1919</small>.
The sculpture is mounted on a large rectangular block of [[Portland stone]] as a plinth, on three stone steps. Set into the front of the plinth is a bronze cross, and the other three sides of the plinth each bear a bronze plaque listing the 71 names of the bank's war dead. The statue on its plinth stands around tall.
The sculpture was unveiled by the [[Governor of the Bank of England]] [[Montagu Norman, 1st Baron Norman|Montagu Norman]] in a prominent position in the Bank's garden, in an open internal courtyard, at a short ceremony at 4pm on 11 November 1921, at which it was dedicated by the [[Archdeacon of London]] [[Ernest Holmes (priest)|Ernest Holmes]], with two bandsmen from the [[Grenadier Guards]] playing the [[Last Post]] and [[Reveille]].
A new committee was established in 1945 to commission elements to commemorate the war dead from the Second World War, again using funds raised from the staff donations. Rather than commissioning a new monument, modest elements were added to the existing memorial by [[Alexander Scott]]: set into the paving before the sculpture is a circular raised bronze plaque about in diameter, inscribed with a wreath around the words: <small> TO THE / MEMORY / OF THOSE WHO / CROSSED THE / SAME WATERS / 1939-1945</small>. The memorial was rededicated on 20 October 1948 at a ceremony attended by the Bank's Governor [[Thomas Catto, 1st Baron Catto]], the [[Bishop of Stepney]] [[Robert Moberly (bishop)|Robert Moberly]], and by the former Governor Montagu Norman.
It is visible from the Bank's entrance hall, and the offices that surround it. The names of the bank's staff who served in the First World War are also inscribed in the entrance hall, with the dead marked with red crosses, opposite the names of the 65 war dead from the Second World War. Several of the bank's war dead are also commemorated by bronze plaques in other buildings that were Bank of England offices, in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle,
The memorial became a Grade II [[listed building]] in 2017.
==References==
* [https://ift.tt/30UqnhD Bank of England War Memorial], National Heritage List for England, Historic England
* [https://ift.tt/3kKiIu0 Memorial to Fallen Colleagues 1914-18], Bank of England archive
* [https://ift.tt/3fPc6XK The Bank Remembers: 100 Years On, 1914-2018], Bank of England archive
* [https://ift.tt/3gWUkmC Bank of England, St Christopher statue], War Memorials Online
* [https://ift.tt/3apfbg2 Ban of England - St Christopher statue], War Memorials Register, Imperial War Museums
* [https://ift.tt/3iC65iT "War memorials in organizational memory: a case study of the Bank of England"], Victoria Barnes & Lucy Newton (2018), ''Management & Organizational History', 13:4, 309-333, https://ift.tt/3kLA89B
[[Category:1921 sculptures]]
[[Category:Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Grade II listed buildings in the City of London]]
[[Category:Grade II listed monuments and memorials]]
[[Category:Statues in London]]
[[Category:World War I memorials in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:World War II memorials in England]]
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