Vandalism to the War Memorial

In 1919/1920, the Parish erected a War Memorial in the forecourt outside the Church, facing onto Queen's Gate. There is uncertainty as to the designer, who could have been Charles Nicholson, who designed the All Soul's Chapel at about this time, or Martin Travers, who is known to have designed a Calvary War Memorial for the parish, though this is believed to be an interior piece.

This design took the form of a covered wayside Calvary, with the names of the departed carved into a large stone tablet mounted in the support at the base.

Over night at the end of April 2006, the Calvary was attacked and vandalized. The arm of the Corpus on the Crucifix, and the figure of St John have both vanished completely. The parish has the figure of Our Lady, who a helpful passer-by placed safely out of site behind the Calvary. the face is broken away and there are many small fragments recovered from the pavement behind the Calvary. The picture below shows the resultant state of the Calvary.

The parish intends to restore the Calvary, both as an act of remembrance to the Seventy or so of this small parish who were killed in the First World War, and as a place of devotion used by many passers by. The cost of this has been estimated to be around £14 000.

An application has was submitted to the Wolfson Foundation, in conjunction with English Heritage and the War Memorials Trust, for a grant to cover half of this cost. This has recently been awarded, with the sum of £6 800 offered. The Parish needs to raise a further £4 000.

If you wish to make a donation, please sent it to the Parish Office, marked for the War Memorial, and make cheques payable to St Augustine's Church.