Oldfield Park Junior School (Bath) WW1 Memorial Project
Oldfield Park Baptist Church (Bath)
WW1 Memorial
This oak memorial is displayed in the vestibule of Oldfield Park Baptist Church in the Triangle.
As well as the names of those members of the congregation who died in World War 1, it has had the names of two fallen men from World War 2 added (J. H. Ashton & C. F. Smith).
From Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette, Saturday 30th October 1920:
OLDFIELD PARK BAPTISTS.
War Memorial Unveiled by Mr. H. Mallard.
War Memorial Unveiled by Mr. H. Mallard.
A special
service on Thursday evening, which preceded this year's celebration of
the anniversary of the minister (the Rev. W. Linton), the war memorial
tablet at the Oldfield Park Baptist Church was unveiled by Mr. H.
Mallard. The tablet, which is of oak, with gilt lettering, was been
placed in the entrance lobby, in order that it may readily seen by all
who enter the church. Those who also took part in the service were the
Rev. W. Linton, who read a portion of Scripture, and the Rev. G. E.
Lloyd, who offered prayer.
Mr. Mallard said the men who had left them were the cream of our manhood. They were men of peace; the whole science and machinery of war were repugnant to them. They took up their task with a sense duty — as a task from which they could not escape. For most of them the glamour of war had already gone; they knew it for the gruesome, brutal, barbarous thing it must be. That night they blessed God for their memory. The present time was a call and a great challenge to those who remained. Today we were face to face with the very problems which produced the war. The war was past; the problems were still here. We had before us the example of those who laid down their lives for the sake of findin'g a solution for those problems. Our task to-day was to create a new world, in which war should never be able to lift its head — a world in which wrong, oppression and iniquity should die. This was a huge task, and one which could only be accomplished in the light and faith of true Christianity.
The ministers and congregation then adjourned to the lobby, where Mr. Mallard drew aside the Union Jack which covered the memorial, and dedicating prayers were recited.
The tablet bears the inscription:
Mr. Mallard said the men who had left them were the cream of our manhood. They were men of peace; the whole science and machinery of war were repugnant to them. They took up their task with a sense duty — as a task from which they could not escape. For most of them the glamour of war had already gone; they knew it for the gruesome, brutal, barbarous thing it must be. That night they blessed God for their memory. The present time was a call and a great challenge to those who remained. Today we were face to face with the very problems which produced the war. The war was past; the problems were still here. We had before us the example of those who laid down their lives for the sake of findin'g a solution for those problems. Our task to-day was to create a new world, in which war should never be able to lift its head — a world in which wrong, oppression and iniquity should die. This was a huge task, and one which could only be accomplished in the light and faith of true Christianity.
The ministers and congregation then adjourned to the lobby, where Mr. Mallard drew aside the Union Jack which covered the memorial, and dedicating prayers were recited.
The tablet bears the inscription:
1914 - Our Glorious Dead - 1919.