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Life size statue of soldier in combat uniform on tapering sandstone pedestal. Four bronze panels with names of fallen on each side (460 names). Top of pedestal has carved wreaths on three sides and shield with arms of borough on fourth side. Plaque at base recording fallen of World War II.

A meeting of ratepayers was held in the Town Hall on 3 February 1919 to decide whether a public memorial should be erected to the town's dead, and what form any memorial should take. The meeting was attended mainly by members of the local council, with no more than 14 others present. It was agreed that a memorial should be erected in Dukinfield but there were a number of proposals as to its form. Members of the neighbouring town and district councils had already met and sent a letter to the meeting suggesting that a fitting memorial would be the extension of the District Infirmary. Other councillors were in favour of building a large public hall which could contain a memorial plaque. Councillor Grundy argued that in addition to the problems of cost, "monuments were not suitable in a district like this on account of the prevailing atmospheric conditions." However, both of these schemes were unsuccessful. The Infirmary would, the Mayor suggested, be supported as a separate scheme, and there was a general feeling that a public hall, which had long been needed in the town, ought to be provided for out of the rates rather than by public subscription. The Rev. E.G. Evans said that since the war "to a large extent had been won by the children of the poor" they should provide secondary school and university scholarships to the working classes, but his suggestion failed to attract the support of the meeting. The Rev. C. Jackson Shawe, an army chaplain and one of the few members of the public at the meeting, argued that the memorial should not be merely utilitarian or ornamental. "Any memorial for posterity must be a memorial of the ideal life, not of the practical life," he said. The memorial should serve the purpose of "spiritual reconstruction," and should "give their young people ideals."(1) A second meeting was called for the 5 May which decided that memorial panels containing the roll of honour should be placed in the council chamber. However, this idea failed to attract much support or funds from the public and in September another meeting was called which was again inconclusive. On 15 March 1920 three designs were proposed, two cenotaphs and the soldier statue. The latter was accepted after a vote on the 12 April at yet another public meeting. The question of location was also put to a vote, with Chapel Hill winning out over proposed sites in front of the Town Hall and in the park. The memorial was unveiled by Sir John Wood and dedicated by the Rev. W.H.F. Palin, "in the presence of many thousands of spectators." Sergeant Brooks, an ex-serviceman blinded in the war, laid the first wreath. The Mayor, Alderman Underwood, then addressed the crowd, saying that although there had been many important occasions in the town, "there had never been an event which could claim to be equal in greatness or solemnity to that taking place that afternoon." Whatever sacrifices they and he might be called on to make in their lives "would be as nothing compared with the sacrifices their brave men had made for them." Between two and three hundred wreaths were then laid, covering the base of the memorial in flowers.(2)

Men of Dukinfield who fell in WWI.

circa

raw year

Condition

At risk

Inscriptions

Signatures

Statue

Bronze

228cm high

Pedestal

Sandstone ashlar

533cm high x 182cm square

Panels

Bronze

121cm high x 76cm wide

Metallic staining

Green staining on figure

Biological growth

algae on base

None

None