Region ID

Work ID

Manual Reference

Type

Title

Sculptor

Date of design

Year of unveiling

Unveiling details

Road

Precise Location

A to Z Ref

OS Ref

Postcode

Work is

Listing Status

Duty of Care

Commissioned by

Notes

War memorial; grey granite war memorial in form of a pylon penetrated by an arch beneath which is a bronze cross overlaid with a crusader's sword. A pair of bronze figures are positioned either side of the arch: 'Peace Restraining War' is represented by the seated female figure of Peace who is gripping the arms of a kneeling male warrior; 'Peace Seeing the Horrors of War' depicts the female figure of Peace raising her hands in anguish as the now dead warrior lies prostrate in her lap.

By 25 September 1920, a war memorial sub-committee had been appointed by Bolton Council. At that meeting it was resolved that the memorial should be sited in Queen's park, and take the form of a tower "somewhat after the design of a Campanile" on which a roll of honour should be inscribed. On 10 December, a meeting of "representative gentlemen" of Bolton was held in the Mayor's dining room at the Town Hall to ratify the earlier decision and appoint a memorial committee, which was made up chiefly of councillors and aldermen. Initial plans were delayed owing to a combination of the post-war depression and the withdrawal of the Bolton Trades' Council from the scheme. Moreover, the mayor told the council on 26 April 1921, "many influential persons" had expressed unfavourable opinions, and had suggested that since memorials had been placed in almost every school and church, there was no real necessity for a municipal monument. It was therefore resolved that the opening of the fund be deferred for more propitious times. The matter was not returned to until 25 November 1924 when the Committee reconvened and resolved to proceed with the scheme. A public meeting was again held in the Mayor's Dining Room at the Town Hall on 13 January 1925 when a new committee was appointed and a subscription list was opened. By May 1925 the committee had decided that the memorial should be placed not in the park but in Victorian Square in front of the Town Hall, with a Hall of Memory containing a roll of honour to be constructed inside its front Portico. A sketch of the proposed monument (somewhat different from that finally adopted) was submitted, which expressed "the dual purpose of being symbolic of the sacrifice of the fallen and the triumph of victory," with the cross at its centre "representing the common faith of our Country." This design also contained sculpture of a winged Victory, flanked with mourning female figures in the Greek style, which was considered preferable to military sculpture because it would be timeless. Uniformed figures would, the committee thought, "be considered by future generations [as] a relic, rather than a permanent memorial for all time."(1) There were some objections to the Victoria Square site because it was being used as a bus terminal, thus restricting the amount of space available. In addition, it was thought to be too noisy in the Square, thereby making appreciation of the memorial a difficult matter. However, the committee stuck to its chosen site. By May 1927, competition rules had been finalised which stated that the sculptural figures on either side of the monument had to be symbolic of struggle, sacrifice and victory. The bronze groups shoud be "vigorous and full of action" with Victory as the crowning figure of the memorial. Three sculptors were shortlisted and Walter Marsden's came nearest to the specifications, but, the Evening News declared, "none of them were wholly satisfactory."(2) Marsden himself had been an officer in the Bolton 5th Loyal Lancashire Regiment and had fought with them at Ypres. He was decorated twice for bravery before being taken prisoner at Cambrai. Marsden said that he had tried to avoid realism, which would have located the work in time, and which might therefore render it "objectionable" to future generations. The first group (on the north side of the memorial) represents "Struggle" with a female figure of Peace trying to hold back Youth, "characteristic of the best manhood of our Town-clean and fit, with unbounded enery-prepared to give all for its Country." The "Struggle" is that of Peace deciding that Youth must eventually go to war. At the same time Youth is striving to take up arms in a manner "typical of the attitude of our Country in those critical days of 1914." On the South side, two figures represent Sacrifice giving unto Death. Peace now holds in her lap the prostrate body of Youth, who has given himself so that "his country's honour may be preserved." Peace now "deplores the loss of life which modern civilization has demanded as the price of a Peace with Honour."(3) Marsden's work was criticized by Walter Gilbert, one of the unsuccessful competitors for the sculptural work. Gilbert argued that Marsden's figures suggested "that it is the impetuousness of youth which causes war." The group on the memorial however, "were superficial in sentiment" because they not only did "not go deep enough into the fibre of our being," but they were "an incentive to cowardice [and] a justification of the outlook of the conscientious objector who reared his head in the last war. The figures "reverse all that teaching which has bought human ideals on to the high road of civilization," Gilbert declared. They were "the antithesis of all we have been taught from our mother's knees-they are non-moral."(4) The memorial was finally unveiled on 14 July 1928 without the sculptures, which were added in 1931.

Men of Bolton who fell in Great War.

circa

raw year

Condition

At risk

Inscriptions

Signatures

Statues

Bronze

244 cm high approx

Memorial

granite

915 cm high approx

No damage

None

None

Recently cleaned