This issue became so heated because the dead, as Bushaway notes, took on a sacred character for the bereaved, and the preservation of the memory of the dead, beyond the immediate circle of his family and friends, began to be seen as a personal and national obligation.31 The origin of the public's desire to list the names of the fallen, either in print (in various Rolls of Honour) or on plaques and other memorial objects, arose with the volunteer army. As Bushaway explains, Britain's regular army had not enjoyed such public interest in previous wars - only individual acts of valour had been commemorated and celebrated before.32 However, volunteers were different, and their families expected them to be treated differently. Bushaway observes that the compulsion to record the names of those who had been killed, in any of the several lists available, was a remarkable departure from the British experience of earlier wars.33 The villages, towns and cities of Britain whose inhabitants had responded to Kitchener's 1914 call for volunteers would require that each of their casualties be given due recognition; hence the debate in the Commons and the press about the Commission's policies on the nature of the commemoration of the dead.

During the debate Asquith said he had no objection to being treated in the same manner as any ordinary person, and in the end the Commission's policies were allowed to be proceed. Asquith's son, Raymond, is principally commemorated at St Andrew's Church since he married Edward Horner's older sister, Katherine. Asquith's wooden grave cross hangs above the second entrance to the Horner Chapel (see Figure 6), but his main memorial is on the wall at the west end of the church, beneath the tower. It consists of a lengthy Latin inscription with lettering by Eric Gill, surmounted by a bronze laurel wreath, which is the work of Lutyens (see Figure 7). Asquith was killed during the wearisome Battle of the Somme. The inscription reads:

Asquith is also, like Horner, named on the parish memorial which is on a wall in the north aisle, and is surmounted by the flag of the British Legion (see Figure 8). The Mells parish memorial, which is the work of the Kensington School of Art, consists of a stone tablet inscribed:

As Boorman observes, it was not uncommon for a man's name to appear on a variety of different memorials.34 Like Asquith, he might be commemorated on an individual memorial somewhere at home and his name might appear also on his school, university, workplace, church, club, regiment and/or community memorial. Besides being commemorated on the individual memorial and the parish memorial in St Andrew's, Asquith is also listed on the memorial at Winchester College (see Figure 9) - where he went to school - and on the memorial at the Houses of Parliament as the son of the then Prime Minister (see Figure 10).35

Boorman argues that whilst such a situation is a duplication of commemoration, it was nevertheless an important source of consolation to the family and friends of the dead man - and in some cases such memorials represented the only opportunity a family had to pay a personal tribute to the sacrifice he had made, since not everyone could afford to visit the battlefields cemeteries even with the help of organisations such as the St Barnabas Society, the Church Army, the Salvation Army or the YMCA.36 Boorman believes that a score or so of individual names on a plaque in a parish church may well have had more relevance to the bereaved than a Roll of Honour listing several thousand names.37

In very small communities, as Boorman notes, the church was frequently the site of the only general war memorial, either in its grounds or within its walls.38 However, in larger communities a church memorial merely commemorated those of its members who had fallen. In the case of Vobster, a village near Mells, the parish memorial is no longer sited in the parish church. Instead it is housed in St Andrew's Church alongside the Mells parish memorial (see Figure 11). It was re-sited there following the closure of Vobster parish church in 1983 (see Figure 12). The Vobster memorial aroused my curiosity since it seemed odd that there should be two such memorial plaques in one church. The inscription on the Vobster plaque reads:

King notes that where tablets are concerned, the form of the monument itself has no special connotation - what matters are the names inscribed thereon.40 The names carry the essential meaning of the memorial, and their treatment is the primary design consideration. Frequently experts and critics recommended simplicity both in cutting the inscriptions and in the wording, although ecclesiastical architects and monumental masons offered designs in both classical and gothic styles.41

There are two other personal memorials to men who died in the First World War in St Andrew's church; these are located on either side of the door. On the left (when facing the church door) is a brass plaque commemorating Arthur Long (see Figure 13), which is inscribed:

To the right of the church door is a larger, more elaborate plaque dedicated to the memory of Stanes Geoffrey Bates.42 This plaque has a decorative border in marble and features three badges or crests - probably one is the badge of the Hussars and the other of the North Somerset Yeomanry since he served with both these regiments (see Figure 14), as is recorded in the inscription, which reads:

The variety of memorials to be found at St Andrew's is not unusual, and even the presence of two parish memorials is not entirely rare - St Luke's church in Cheltenham also houses the parish memorial from the closed St John's church (see my essay on war memorials). As sources for local historians they can be invaluable - for instance, the order in which the names appear on the Vobster memorial is unusual - it is not in order of the date of death or rank, nor is it alphabetically ordered. The reason for the names being ordered as they are could reveal a great deal to social historians, for example about the hierarchy within the village. Also of interest would be details of who designed the memorials, who raised the money to pay for their erection in respect of the parish memorials, and whether there was any kind of controversy involved in the decision-making processes, or whether unanimity prevailed.

The possibility of controversy, rather than unanimity, prevailing during the decision-making processes cannot be ruled out in spite of the fact that for a great many people the commemoration of the war dead was an intensely emotional experience, and was even treated by some as a sacred act.43 Erecting a memorial was seen as a symbolic act of the same kind as a remembrance ceremony. It was not merely the practical provision of an object which would subsequently be used as a ceremonial site. As King observes, organising a local memorial committee and giving to, or collecting for, a memorial fund were acts with moral significance representing a sacrifice of resources and time, dedicated to the dead and also a coming together of the community to express its respect and sorrow for the dead.44 A completed memorial, notes King, signalled that the appropriate actions had been performed, and the dead properly appreciated, by the inhabitants of a particular locality.45

Bibliography

Final note: In the churchyard of St Andrew's lies buried one of England's most famous poets of the First World War - Siegfried Sassoon. His grave is marked by a plain headstone, simply inscribed:

SIEGFRIED LORAINE SASSOON 1886-1967 R.I.P.

(Photo courtesy of Rhys Jones, 2002)

Sassoon was buried at Mells at his own request in order that he might lie near Monseigneur Ronald Knox, Catholic priest and scholar, who lived for some years at the manor of Mells. But for his untimely death from cancer, Knox would have instructed Sassoon in the Catholic faith.

The inscription on Knox's headstone reads: RONALD ARBUTHNOT KNOX PRIEST SCHOLAR PREACHER & WRITER HE SPENT THE LAST YEARS OF HIS LIFE IN MELLS HERE FINISHED HIS TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE AND HERE DIED THE 24 TH AUGUST 1957 AGED 69 YEARS PRAY FOR HIS SOUL

(Photo courtesy of Rhys Jones, 2002)

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(This essay has been written by

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