Bulletin May 2010 No. 45 ISSN: 1745 7556 Reg. Charity Comm. No.: 1062255 War Memorials Trust works to protect and conserve all war memorials within the UK Objectives of War Memorials Trust 1. To monitor the condition of war memorials and to encourage protection and conservation when appropriate. Bulletin 2. To provide expert advice to those involved in war memorial ISSN: 1745-7556; Published quarterly by projects, to act as the specialist organisation for war memorial War Memorials Trust conservation issues and to facilitate repair and conservation 42a Buckingham Palace Road through grants schemes. London SW1W 0RE 3. To work with relevant organisations to encourage them to Telephone administration: 020 7834 0200 accept responsibility for war memorials and recognise the Telephone conservation: 020 7233 7356 need to undertake repair and conservation work. Telephone charity: 0300 123 0764 Fax: 020 7834 0202 or 0300 123 0765 4. To build a greater understanding of war memorial heritage and raise awareness of the issues surrounding war memorial Email: [email protected] or [email protected] conservation. Web: www.warmemorials.org Membership rates Registered Charity Commission No.: 1062255 War Memorials Trust membership rates are: Patron HRH The Duchess of Cornwall Area Vice Patrons £20 annual member; Diana Graves (England), £30 joint annual member and Sara Jones CBE (England), £100 for a lifetime subscription. Maj. Gen. the Rev Llewellyn CB OBE (Wales), Admiral Roger Lockwood (Scotland), The Lord Molyneaux of Killead KBE PC (N. I.), Photo credits front cover: Simon Weston OBE (Wales). Clifton war memorial, Bedfordshire © Clifton Parish Council, 2010 (WM2616). The project received £2,500 from the Small Trustees Grants Scheme towards repairs following damage to the war J. G. Cluff DL (Chairman), memorial by vehicles. For further information visit Roger Bardell (Treasurer), Colin Amery, www.warmemorials.org/search-grants/?gID=730. The Rt. Hon. Lord Cope of Berkeley, Jane Furlong, War Memorials Trust gratefully Meg Hillier MP, acknowledges the support of Peter McCormick OBE, English Heritage with its John Peat, Conservation Programme. David Seymour, Gavin Stamp, Juliette Woolley. Inside this issue: Director Frances Moreton Winston S. Churchill 5 Conservation Officer Joanna Sanderson Administrator Nancy Treves Assistant Conservation Officer Amy Davidson Grants 7-9 Accounts Manager Jo Talbot Office Volunteers Barclays and Midland Banks 10-11 Martin Shorthouse, Vicki Villiers, Jonathan Poon Preservation trusts 12-13 Production Editor Frances Moreton Listing report 13 Bulletin is published by War Memorials Trust. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher. Fundraising 14 No responsibility will be accepted for any errors or omissions, or comments made by the writers. Views expressed in the Bulletin are not necessarily the views of War Memorials Trust. © War Memorials Trust 2010. Merchandise 15-16 Printed by The Roman Group, 01202 424222 Number 45 May 2010 Page 3 NEWS FROM WAR MEMORIALS TRUST Message from staff It is always sad to have to begin with bad news but you will be aware that War Memorials Trust President, Winston S. Churchill passed away in March. Winston was a driving force in the establishment of the Trust in the late 1990s. We pay tribute to his work on page 5. We have, on behalf of all involved with the Trust, passed on our condolences to his family. We will greatly miss him. At the Trustees meeting in March tribute was paid to Mr Churchill’s contribution. The Board also welcomed a new member. Dr Gavin Stamp is an architectural historian and writer, with a particular interest in war memorials. Turn to page 4 to find out more about our new Trustee. Alongside the introduction to our new Trustee is a piece by our recent Work Experience Student about his two weeks with the charity. War Memorials Trust is always pleased to hear stories of cases in which custodians have taken appropriate action in relation to their war memorials. We have two articles this issue discussing the actions taken by two banks. These articles were supplied by two Regional Volunteers in response to our request for articles. Remember we welcome your contributions, guidance on submissions can be found in our guidelines at www.warmemorials.org/bulletin. Another organisation doing fantastic work with its war memorials is The Fovant Badges Society formed to care for the Fovant Badges. The Society faces a challenging task maintaining the chalk military crests carved on Fovant Down as Frances found out on a recent visit. She is shown right with James Rucker and Tony Pinder of the Society above one of the badges. Anyone interested in helping the Society, or finding out more can visit www.fovantbadges.com. Finally, we are delighted that during April and May all our Regional Volunteers were sent their new information packs. These are designed to provide them with all the information and tools to help the Trust in the different aspects of its work. We thank them again for their help and encourage anyone interested in joining the ranks to get in touch! AGM and war memorial walk Accompanying your Bulletin you should find an invitation to War Memorials Trust’s AGM which will take place on Monday 5th July at 2.30pm in the Conference Room of the Imperial War Museum in London. In addition, an extract of the Annual Report and Accounts is enclosed. Full copies of the Annual Report and Accounts can be obtained from the Trust by calling 020 7834 0200, emailing [email protected] or you can download a copy from the Trust’s website at www.warmemorials.org/financials. Anyone planning to attend the AGM should advise the Trust by returning the tear off slip on the letter, telephoning 020 7834 0200, emailing [email protected] or visiting the Trust’s events page and booking online at www.warmemorials.org/events. It is not necessary to send apologies. Prior to the AGM a war memorial walk will take place. Meeting at noon at the RAF Church, St Clement Danes on the Strand in London the walk will take in Somerset House, Embankment Gardens, memorials outside the Ministry of Defence and the Battle of Britain memorial before crossing Westminster Bridge to reach the Museum in time for the AGM. Anyone interested in booking a place on the walk should return the tear off slip on the letter, telephone 020 7834 0200, email [email protected] or visit the Trust’s events page and book online at www.warmemorials.org/events. Tickets cost £8. Page 4 War Memorials Trust Bulletin NEWS FROM WAR MEMORIALS TRUST Introducing Gavin Stamp In March 2010, Trustees welcomed a new Trustee to the Board, Gavin Stamp. Dr Stamp is an architectural historian and writer, with a particular interest in war memorials. He organised the Silent Cities exhibition about the memorial and cemetery architecture of the Great War held at the RIBA in 1977 and in 2006 he published a study of The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. He has published other books about the architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Gilbert Scott dynasty and on Alexander 'Greek' Thomson. Educated at Dulwich College and the University of Cambridge, he taught for a time at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow and is an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow. He is a former Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society and has also presented television documentaries including a series on the Orient Express in 2007. Gavin Stamp aboard the Orient Express © WAG tv,2007 Work Experience Student Robin Talbot I was required to do work experience for two weeks, and I had acquired a placement working for War Memorials Trust. At first, I was quite apprehensive, and knew nothing about war memorials; however the staff there were very nice and after a day or two I was already enjoying it much more than school! I regularly worked on the databases, adding photographs to lists of war memorials in order to allow them to be indentified much more easily in future. I also often did tasks such as filing, creating spreadsheets for reference (to make the lives of the other staff easier) and churning out huge amounts of bulletins and new copies of a Theft Prevention Guide for the equally Robin Talbot on work experience © WMT, 2010 huge number of subscribers to the Trust’s newsletters. I enjoyed all my jobs more or less… although occasionally I stared at the clock hands hoping they would move faster! Fortunately, a sense of accomplishment came with the work I did and the thought that I was part of a machine, in which everyone had an important part to play. I learned a lot about war memorials, too, and got a taste of what it’s like to have a real job—and how a sardine feels, as I commuted on the Tube. Leaning conference, Cambridge On 4th March War Memorials Trust ran another learning event for custodians. Held in the Guildhall in Cambridge invitations were sent to councils, veterans groups, religious organisations, Regional Volunteers and others across East Anglia. Due to the demand from custodians the event ran twice during the day with identical morning and afternoon sessions enabling 100 people to attend. Led by Joanna Sanderson and Frances Moreton the conference covered the law and war memorials, conservation issues and approaches, grant schemes, other funding and help available from the Trust. Frances Moreton presenting at the conference © WMT, 2010 Further events are scheduled for 10th June 2010 in Liverpool and 9th September 2010 in Bristol. At these venues a custodian conference will be held in the morning with a session for contractors running in the afternoon.