A memorial for the living
After the First World War many towns chose a useful memorial rather than a monument, and Wantage was one of them. On 13 May 1920 the War Memorial Recreation Ground was opened off Manor Road. Its fifteen acres were given to the town by E. B. Ormond, and the entrance gates were given by John Nicholas Arbery. Tablets at the gates record both gifts, although their lettering is now badly worn.
The original iron gates did not survive the next war. They were taken for scrap metal, like railings and gates across the country, and in 1948 new gates were given in memory of Sarah Adkin. The ground is still the town’s main park, with a children’s play area, a bowls club and a pitch-and-putt course.
The churchyard cross
The town’s stone memorial came only after the Second World War, and it remembers the men of both wars together. Residents and the British Legion raised the money through public appeals, with a budget of up to £400. The design is a plain hooded cross with a tapering shaft, standing on a square plinth and a two-step base, in all about 14 feet 6 inches high. It is built of Clipsham stone, a pale limestone from Rutland, and the builder was F. Etchells.
General Sir Miles Dempsey, who had commanded the British Second Army in north-west Europe in 1944–45, unveiled the cross on 8 May 1949, four years to the day after victory in Europe. The inscription dedicates it to the men of Wantage who gave their lives in the two world wars, 1914–1918 and 1939–1945. At first it carried no names. When the memorial was refurbished in 2007, metal panels bearing the names were added to the base. Wantage Town Council looks after it.
Other memorials in the town
The names of the fallen are also recorded inside the parish church of St Peter and St Paul, and several schools and chapels have their own memorials. The surrounding villages put up their own crosses, lych gates and plaques. The cross is not on the national list of protected buildings, but it is recorded on the Imperial War Museums’ War Memorials Register, which is the best place to start for anyone tracing names.
Visiting
The cross stands in the churchyard of St Peter and St Paul, just off the Market Place, and can be seen at any time. The recreation ground is a short walk south, off Manor Road.