Some letters, minutes and accounts dating back to 1919 and 1920 have recently been added to the Village Archive. They provide some fascinating insights into the July 1919 celebrations and the unveiling of the War Memorial a year later.

Village celebrations

The end of the WW1 was celebrated in Chipstead on Saturday 19 July 1919. Sir Horace Marshall (who was Lord Mayor of London at the time) had been asked for his views on how the event should be celebrated. In a short letter from The Mansion House dated 28 May 1919 he suggested that ‘a firework display with a tea and sports etc might be acceptable’. In the event the celebration consisted only of tea, sports and flag waving by the children - a bonfire and fireworks were vetoed on the grounds of cost. The village school children were also each presented with a commemorative mug by Lady Marshall. The total cost of the celebration was £42.9.2 (including £12.6.0 for some 200 mugs). All but 2d were raised from some 26 donations from the village ‘great and good’.

War Memorial

A war memorial was built on Church Green in front of St Margaret’s. It was designed by Hugh Scott-Willey and the Village Archive contains his drawings for a number of alternative designs. The final design was chosen by The War Memorial Committee chaired by Mr FE Goad who lived in The Lodge on Hazelwood Lane.

The memorial itself, constructed from granite by the masons Farmer & Brindley, cost £365 but the total cost, including engraving and site work, was £434.4.2. It was funded by a much wider group of donors than the village celebrations. In all there were 165 subscribers and the largest individual donation was £25. For some time, it appeared that the full cost of the memorial would not be raised and in the final months nine individuals gave a second donation and three gave a third.

The memorial was located on the highest point of Church Green. The green was acquired by the Parish Council from Lord Hylton at a cost of £20.

The project was not without incident. The minutes of 30 March 1920 (just a week before the unveiling) record that the question of Alfred Prentice was discussed ‘as this man is now known to be alive and that his name had been put on the memorial in error’. Captain Scott Willey was asked to ‘obliterate the name temporarily pending further action by the Committee’. How such ‘obliteration’ of the name in the short and long terms was achieved is not known but it is not there today.

Unveiling of Memorial

The memorial was unveiled by Frank Goad, Chairman of the Parish Council, on Saturday 3 April 1920 at 5pm. We have a record of his address which even today is an emotional read:

‘ We are met together this afternoon to honour the memory of the gallant Chipstead men who gave their lives for their King and Country in the great war that ended in a glorious victory for our armies. We all wished that Chipstead should have its own memorial to Chipstead men and this cross, which has appropriately been designed by a Chipstead man in the person of Mr Scott Willey, has therefore been set up by us to their honour and as a mark of the deep sympathy we all feel for those who mourn their loss. It will carry their fame to future generations. To their glorious memory I now unveil this memorial cross.’

The unveiling was preceded by the hymn ‘ For all the Saints’ and was followed by these words sent by Lord Hylton:

Valiant hearts, who to your glory came

Through dust of conflict and through battle flame

Tranquil you lie your knightly virtue proved

Your memory hallowed in the land you loved.

The memorial was due to be unveiled by Lord Hylton, the Lord of the Manor, but three days before he cried off sick.  He wrote a letter dated 2 April 1920 to Frank Goad stating ‘ I am so very much annoyed at having been obliged to adhere to my doctors orders to me not to leave this house for some days. I did not pay much attention to my cough last week but it seems to have now turned into a touch of bronchitis. I had remained in Town on purpose to perform the ceremony to which I have been so kindly invited and it is the matter of keenest disappointment to be kept a prisoner here. Could there be a more appropriate site for the memorial that in the shadow of the old church which has stood there for a thousand years a symbol (to my mind at the heart) of Religion quite apart from any sectarian feeling? Had I been with you tomorrow I should have liked to add my appeal - to many already made – urging unity between classes and a common effort to keep England- saved by these gay and gallant lads whom you now commemorate – far from the blood-stained revolutionaries who are now working so hard to set up Bolshevism in our midst.’  Mr Goad chose not to try to save Chipstead from a communist uprising!

The comment about the location of the church has been thought by some to be an indication that Lord Hylton disagreed with the location of the memorial as he thought it was ‘overshadowed’ by the church. Personally, I doubt this – the question was surely rhetorical. Had Hylton disagreed with the location I cannot believe that he would have raised this just a day before the unveiling in such an otherwise sensitive letter.  

Jon Grant, February 2025