STOPHAM WAR MEMORIAL

World War 1 & 2 - Roll of Honour with detailed information
Compiled and copyright © Transcribed Chris Comber 2004

The Stopham memorial is to be found on the village green below St Mary the Virgin Church, off the A283, Stopham, Chichester, West Sussex. It takes the form of a plain Latin cross on a tapering shaft standing on a square plinth with a three stepped, square, with the base.set in a small garden; there are small raised crosses at the base of the shaft on each face. There are eight names for World War 1 and four names for World War 2.

Extract from West Sussex Gazette - Thursday 6 January 1921, page 12:

STOPHAM.
WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED.

On Sunday a memorial was unveiled to the men of this little pariah who made the supreme sacrifice in the Great War. The memorial, which has been erected on the Village Green to the west of the old church, takes the form of a tapering shaft or column of Clipsham stone, surmounted by a cross, with the massive octagonal base rising in asteps, fashioned out of local stone, quarried, cut and built up by the workmen on the Stopham estate. It was designed by Mr. H. P. Burke Downing, Diocesan Architect for Chichester. The names, deeply cut on two sides of the the shaft, are: Albert J. Adsett, Walter B. Barttelot, Nigel W. Barttelot, Ernest Hawkins, Charles Holden, William Holden, George Knight, and Harold Nicholson. The impressive ceremony, in the form appointed by the Bishop of the diocese, was conducted by the Rector of Stopham, the Rev. V. L. Guise. Following the singing of the hymn " O God, our help in ages past," General Sir Henry Sclater, G.C.B., G.B.E., accompanied by Major-Gen. F. W. Cavaye. and assisted by their nephews, Sir Walter Barttelot and Mr. William Barttelot, lowered the Union Jack which draped the memorial, to which, temporarily lashed, was the smoke-stained battle flag of H.M.S. Liberty, in which ship Lieut.-Commander Barttelot was killed in the succesful action in the Blight of Heligoland early in the war. This flag was afterwards carried into the church by his son, Sir Henry Sclater, in an address to the large assembly, pointed out what a large proportion of men —30 out of the small population of about 100—had answered the call of duty; and how heavy the toll had been. He said wow much he appreciated the privilege of being associated with General Cavaye in doing honour to the men of Stopham, whose memorial would stand for all time to show the part the parish had taken, and the loss it had sustaimed, in the Great War, and which would ever keep fresh in our memory and hand on to posterity the example of those who fought for and saved our Empire and homes. We must now do our pat in a spirit of unity and sel-denial to carry on consolidate the work they had so nobly begun, so that those bereaved of their loved ones might feel that their blood had not been shed in vain.The Blessing having been pronounced by the Rector and the Last Post sounded by fourex-Sservice men of Petworth, the ceremony terminated by the singing of God Save the King.

Extract from War Memorials Trust:

One of the names that appears most frequently on the war memorial is Barttelot. The family have a long standing association with Stopham as the major landowners. The family is understood to have come over at the Norman Conquest. They have a long tradition of service, the 2nd Baronet died serving in the Boer War, two of his children Walter and Nigel died in World War One and a further generation, the 4th Baronet fell in World War Two.

Photographs Copyright © Chris Comber 2006

IN MEMORY OF

Last updated: 19 February, 2020