War Memorial Memories. Roger Bingham recalls the inauguration of Milnthorpe's War Memorial in 1919, which was claimed to be the first in the district.

ON SUNDAY, September 11, 1919, exactly ten months after the Armistice, which ended the fighting in the First World War, Milnthorpe's War Memorial was dedicated on the village green.

Local claims that it was the first community memorial to be inaugurated in the district seem to be confirmed by the lack of reports in The Westmorland Gazette of other earlier ceremonies.

Most other memorials were not installed until 1920 or even later.

Over at Burton, where 'a commemoration committee' had been set up in January, endless wrangling delayed a decision to install a Churchyard Cross until November, and then only after a village vote.

Milnthorpe had speedily rejected options like church plaques - 'but what about The Chapel?'; a children's playground - 'too expensive'; and seats 'too ordinary'.

A further suggestion from Chris Knight that the £300, which had come in by June, should be shared out among the veterans, was dismissed as being 'unfair to the fallen'.

Chris grumbled, thereafter, that 'all the lads got, who'd come through, was an engraved walking stick and a hotpot supper'. Even so, he magnanimously led the village band at the unveiling ceremony.

It had been decided to erect an elegant Portland stone cross, 16 feet high, completed by Messrs Morris of London. Designed on simple lines without meretricious ornament, it was enclosed by chains (which disappeared in the 1950s) attached to eight stone pillars.

The total cost of £380, raised by public subscription, also paid for six wayside seats.

At the unveiling ceremony, following the singing of 'O God our help in ages past' and 'How bright the glorious vision shines', almost all the neighbouring clergy paid tribute to the fallen.

Milnthorpe's vicar, the Rev Pickering, focused on survivors and mourners: 'rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep'.

While 'I survey the wondrous cross', was being sung, one observer, 19-year-old Harold Fawcett recalled how Mr Pickering, stared 'unblinkingly' into heaven.

In the main address the MP, Colonel Weston, extolled how, in 1914, 'many of the gallant boys whose names are on the memorial were among the first of the patriots to flock to the colours'.

Subsequently, the original 20 names were joined in 1920 by that of Lieutenant Fred Wilkinson, who was shot, probably by the Bolsheviks, during the allied 'intervention' in The Ukraine against The Russian Revolution.

By mistake the name of Harry Bond, who died in Mesopotamia in 1916, was also omitted in 1919, although he had joined up in Milnthorpe. Fittingly, it was belatedly added in 2018.

The last Milnthorpe soldier to return home was Henry Atkinson.

Living to the age of 90 in 1985 he was, incidentally, the last survivor of Milnthorpe's 1914-1918 warriors.

Arriving at Milnthorpe Station at the dead of night, in January 1920, he never forgot how as he made his way down the hill into the village, he discerned a white edifice, dimly illuminated by a gas street-lamp which he'd never seen before. It was the war memorial.

Then he crouched down, lit a 'Lucifer' match to read the names 'of lads I didn't know were dead and others I'd forgotten all about'. It would make a good scene in a war film.