The World War One Memorials of Ely and the Ely Urban Area
Ely Market Place Memorial
Ely’s main war memorial is situated in the Market Square and was unveiled on 30th April 1922. Earlier photographs show that the people of Ely, as in many other places, had created their own shrine on the same site, against the wall of the cathedral precincts, while the conflict was underway. This first shrine was officially unveiled by the Bishop in an early evening service on 29th June 1917. The service was attended by relatives and friends of the deceased and the Ely Volunteers. At this point the shrine carried 107 names and further photographs and tributes were to be added over the next year and a half. (see below)
Finally the names of 224 dead were inscribed on the six panels of the 1922 memorial and the archway carries the shields of the Diocese of Ely (three crowns) and Ely Cathedral (three keys). Whereas the temporary memorial had been created against the wall of the cathedral precincts (in fact against the garden wall of one of the canon's residences), to create the new memorial the permission of the Dean and Chapter had to be sought to knock through the medieval wall and take over a small area of the cathedral's grounds.
Ely Urban District Council formed a sub-committee to discuss the creation of a permanent memorial in January of 1919 which was made up of Councillors Philip Bidwell, Ernest Harvey, Frank Harlock, James Burrows, Henry Downie and Lieutenant Colonel William Luddington. This group was relatively slow in its deliberations and was overtaken by committees at St Mary's Church, Holy Trinity Church and the Methodist Church which had all agreed the form their own church memorials should take by the end of March, and begun fundraising. The Councillors were distracted because there was talk of a Cambridgeshire memorial - which was to take the form of a significant building project at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge - and a question about whether the main local memorial should actually be in the Cathedral. Eventually a public meeting was held late in March 1919, where suggestions such as a cottage hospital, a library, or public baths were put forward as the best form of memorial. At this point it was decided to create a new committee to oversee the process which was to include all the local clergy, the chair of the Urban Council, and representatives of different institutions. The nucleus of this group was elected at the meeting and included: Reverends S Addleshaw, Andrew Hair, Herbert Campion, T Kirkland, G Vipond Byles, W Timms, the Bishop's wife Mrs Chase, Lieutenant Colonel Goodwyn Archer, Dr Henley Curl and Messers Charles Bidwell, Frank Harlock, A Hall, William Cutlack, William Lincoln, Joseph Markillie, Ernest Harvey, William Bailey, James Burrows, and Philip Allen. Effectively the committee included all the best known tradesmen and authority figures in Ely.
The form the permanent memorial should take had actually also caused much debate amongst members of the Ely Branch of the Comrades of the Great War Association, which, unlike the official committee, was actually made up of returning soldiers. Some of the members of the Comrades had originally wanted the memorial to be a clubhouse for ex-servicemen. (In its first year 334 men had enrolled in the Ely Branch.) Early in 1920 the club scheme was abandoned through lack of financial support and the committee looked around for alternatives.
Meanwhile the various Ely churches were successfully raising funds for their own individual memorials before the final decision was even made about the City’s memorial, in fact the memorial window in St Mary's Church was dedicated in January 1920, while consultations still underway.
Throughout this period of uncertainty the original war shrine on the Market Square remained the focus for many bereaved families. The Ely Standard of 16th April 1920 reports that the Girl Guides had taken on the care of the monument, removing dead flowers, and a message indicated that fresh water for flowers could be had from Mr Herbert Sykes' carpenter's shop on Forehill.
Read more detailed stories of the main Ely War Memorials, as told by the Ely Standard, here.
The Two Ely Parishes
At the time of the Great War Ely was made up of two Anglican parishes – St Mary’s and Holy Trinity. In broad terms, the South and West of the City were in the Parish of St Mary and the North and East and nearby villages were in the Parish of Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity Church was the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel. Holy Trinity also had several “chapels of ease” – these were St Peters in Broad Street, Holy Cross Church in Stuntney and St Etheldreda’s Church in Queen Adelaide. The Parish of St Peter, Prickwillow, was formed out of the parishes of Holy Trinity and St. Mary Ely, Littleport, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall (Suffolk) in 1878 but kept its traditional links with Ely strong. Almost all of the men commemorated on the Market Place memorial also appear on the Roll of Honour in one of these churches.
Memorials in Ely and Surrounds
Ely’s main war memorial is situated in the Market Square and was unveiled on 30th April 1922. Earlier photographs show that the people of Ely, as in many other places, had created their own shrine on the same site, against the wall of the cathedral precincts, while the conflict was underway. This first shrine was officially unveiled by the Bishop in an early evening service on 29th June 1917. The service was attended by relatives and friends of the deceased and the Ely Volunteers. At this point the shrine carried 107 names and further photographs and tributes were to be added over the next year and a half. (see below)
Finally the names of 224 dead were inscribed on the six panels of the 1922 memorial and the archway carries the shields of the Diocese of Ely (three crowns) and Ely Cathedral (three keys). Whereas the temporary memorial had been created against the wall of the cathedral precincts (in fact against the garden wall of one of the canon's residences), to create the new memorial the permission of the Dean and Chapter had to be sought to knock through the medieval wall and take over a small area of the cathedral's grounds.
Ely Urban District Council formed a sub-committee to discuss the creation of a permanent memorial in January of 1919 which was made up of Councillors Philip Bidwell, Ernest Harvey, Frank Harlock, James Burrows, Henry Downie and Lieutenant Colonel William Luddington. This group was relatively slow in its deliberations and was overtaken by committees at St Mary's Church, Holy Trinity Church and the Methodist Church which had all agreed the form their own church memorials should take by the end of March, and begun fundraising. The Councillors were distracted because there was talk of a Cambridgeshire memorial - which was to take the form of a significant building project at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge - and a question about whether the main local memorial should actually be in the Cathedral. Eventually a public meeting was held late in March 1919, where suggestions such as a cottage hospital, a library, or public baths were put forward as the best form of memorial. At this point it was decided to create a new committee to oversee the process which was to include all the local clergy, the chair of the Urban Council, and representatives of different institutions. The nucleus of this group was elected at the meeting and included: Reverends S Addleshaw, Andrew Hair, Herbert Campion, T Kirkland, G Vipond Byles, W Timms, the Bishop's wife Mrs Chase, Lieutenant Colonel Goodwyn Archer, Dr Henley Curl and Messers Charles Bidwell, Frank Harlock, A Hall, William Cutlack, William Lincoln, Joseph Markillie, Ernest Harvey, William Bailey, James Burrows, and Philip Allen. Effectively the committee included all the best known tradesmen and authority figures in Ely.
The form the permanent memorial should take had actually also caused much debate amongst members of the Ely Branch of the Comrades of the Great War Association, which, unlike the official committee, was actually made up of returning soldiers. Some of the members of the Comrades had originally wanted the memorial to be a clubhouse for ex-servicemen. (In its first year 334 men had enrolled in the Ely Branch.) Early in 1920 the club scheme was abandoned through lack of financial support and the committee looked around for alternatives.
Meanwhile the various Ely churches were successfully raising funds for their own individual memorials before the final decision was even made about the City’s memorial, in fact the memorial window in St Mary's Church was dedicated in January 1920, while consultations still underway.
Throughout this period of uncertainty the original war shrine on the Market Square remained the focus for many bereaved families. The Ely Standard of 16th April 1920 reports that the Girl Guides had taken on the care of the monument, removing dead flowers, and a message indicated that fresh water for flowers could be had from Mr Herbert Sykes' carpenter's shop on Forehill.
Read more detailed stories of the main Ely War Memorials, as told by the Ely Standard, here.
The Two Ely Parishes
At the time of the Great War Ely was made up of two Anglican parishes – St Mary’s and Holy Trinity. In broad terms, the South and West of the City were in the Parish of St Mary and the North and East and nearby villages were in the Parish of Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity Church was the Cathedral’s Lady Chapel. Holy Trinity also had several “chapels of ease” – these were St Peters in Broad Street, Holy Cross Church in Stuntney and St Etheldreda’s Church in Queen Adelaide. The Parish of St Peter, Prickwillow, was formed out of the parishes of Holy Trinity and St. Mary Ely, Littleport, Lakenheath, and Mildenhall (Suffolk) in 1878 but kept its traditional links with Ely strong. Almost all of the men commemorated on the Market Place memorial also appear on the Roll of Honour in one of these churches.
Memorials in Ely and Surrounds
- The memorial in St Mary’s Church consists of brass plaques on the southern side of the nave beneath a memorial window.
- The Holy Trinity memorial is a stone tablet which was originally on the south wall of Holy Trinity Church next to the pulpit. When the church reverted to being the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral the memorial was moved into the North Porch.
- In Ely Methodist Church a brass plaque gives the names of eight WW1 casualties and their regiment. It was originally attached to the pulpit but is now mounted on the wall. There was also a framed Roll of Honour listing all those associated with the Church who served in the War and the regiment in which they served. The original is now in the Cambridgeshire Archives and a copy is on display in the church alongside the memorial.
- The Countess of Huntingdon Church has a small memorial.
- St Peter’s Church has an unusual memorial which lists not those who attended the church but the members of a Sunday School class. One name has been chipped away, it is said because the soldier who was named later returned to Ely. As St Peter’s was a chapel of ease of Holy Trinity the other members of the congregation who were killed were named on the Holy Trinity Memorial. St Peter’s is the local memorial with the greatest number of inaccuracies, as (in addition to the chipped away name) it includes several mis-spellings, some soldiers being called by the name of their father, and the name of one young man who was then still alive.
- St Etheldreda’s Roman Catholic Church in Ely has a WW1 memorial window, but no names are included.
- The Cathedral Choristers’ Memorial can be found in the South Nave Aisle of Ely Cathedral.
- The King’s School in Ely originally had an oak memorial tablet with 24 WW1 names; most of these young men were boarders at the school rather than day pupils resident in Ely. This has now been replaced with a slate tablet in the grounds of the school's Hayward Theatre (western side of The Gallery). The new memorial commemorates both World Wars.
- The Prickwillow Memorial is an obelisk situated just off the High Street.
- The Stuntney Memorial is a plaque in the village’s Holy Cross Church. There was also a photograph album, a “Book of Heroes” which was once kept in the church but is now in the Cambridgeshire Collection. It is probable that this book was created out of the photographs left in the church 1914-18, as it is known the church maintained a "War Corner" during the conflict where it displayed the Union Flag and a print of the painting of "The Great Sacrifice" , and that this is where Stuntney families added photographs of their loved ones when they fell.
- St Etheldreda's Church in Queen Adelaide (a chapel of ease / mission church) was deconsecrated and turned into a private house in the 1960s. An anonymous donation of two pictures was made to the church in January 1920 as a form of memorial. In December 1920 a memorial window was placed in the church alongside of which was a framed Roll of Honour carrying twelve names. It is noteable that this window was paid for by donations from former members of Ely Theological College who had preached at the church or celebrated services there - the newspaper lists donations from Johannesburg, Egypt, Calcutta, Bloomfontein, Queensland, Chile, Rhodesia, German East Africa, New Zealand and Melanisia, to name but a few.
- The Cambridgeshire Regiment Chapel (St George’s Chapel) in Ely Cathedral has a series of 24 enormous hinged panels listing all the WW1 dead from Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely under their home village or town. Villages, such as Chettisham, which do not have memorials are all included here.
- A missing memorial? Needhams School stood at the top of Back Hill in Ely (the remaining buildings are now part of King's School). It was a school for boys aged eight and over and would now be called a middle school. It was a fee-paying school, but annually took the brightest seven or eight boys from each of the local primary schools as "free boys". It held about 100 pupils at a time who would be at the school for four years. Many of the young men of Ely passed through Needhams and one presumes it too would have had a roll of honour after the War. The names of the Needhams fallen would have included: Bert Armsby; Percy Thomas Bidwell; John Henry Chapman; Rowland Archer Clarke; Percy Ernest Cecil Fox; Albert Illett; Thomas Layton; Herbert John Negus' Charles Shelton; Frederick Shelton; Albert James Taylor and Thomas Owen Yarrow. 160 "old boys" had served in total. See the lists of POWs and injured soldiers for other Needhams pupils.
A close-up newspaper photograph of the 1917 Ely Market Place shrine. At the top is the text “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”, a verse which was often quoted by the Forces’ chaplains as they wrote letters of condolence to grieving relatives. The two pictures either side of the cross are prints of “The Great Sacrifice” and “The White Comrade”. The lower panel was headed “City of Ely Roll of the Dead” and the names themselves (including details of the soldier’s regiment) were on individual celluloid tablets. Flowers could be left on the bottom shelf. The shrine was made by W.S. Kempton and stood in the place now occupied by the current memorial. The memorial was paid for by public subscription, it having being agreed by the city council that the maximum donation would be set at 2s 6d, so that everyone felt they could contribute. |
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The Holy Trinity Memorial is shown situated in the area of the Cathedral's North Door - the original entrance to Holy Trinity Church.
IN MEMORIAM by E.M. Ainsworth
Written in 1919 for the original Roll of Honour at Ely Cathedral
They went from us. They died for us.
For us they live again.
In memory dear, their names appear
Within this sacred Fane.
From hollowed niche, with carving rich
That gleaming scroll doth yield
To age and fame each soldier’s name
Who died on Flanders field.
They played with us, they prayed with us
These stones their foot have trod.
Now each white knight, in armour bright
Stands round the throne of God
And we, their friends, by devious ends
Must learn to kiss the rod.
They thought for us, they wrought for us
For us they held the Light
On Flemish field they fought for us
Fierce morn, and hellish night.
E’en this grand pile had fallen,
Had they not sought the Right.
And when their souls reached up to God,
Lo! He has washed them white.
Oh! Hearts of us, brave parts of us,
By earthly anguish riven,
In this dark aisle, where Thou dost smile,
Let our sad hearts be shriven.
And bid us know, the afterglow
That comes from sins forgiven.
Each Christly deed, for humble need,
Helps us to kiss the rod
However late, our loved ones wait,
For us to reach to God.
