The men remembered on the war memorial are:
Albert Austin
Thomas Callow
Albert Edward Harris
George Thomas Harris
William Thomas Harris
Jonathan Henry (John) Pickering
Jabez Ernest Spencer
Reuben Frederick Spencer
Harry Tredwell
William Wise
Ernest Callow, brother of Thomas Callow, is remembered on the war memorials at Barford St Michael and Bloxham.
Albert Edward Spencer, brother Jabez and Reuben Spencer, was also killed in the First World War. We do not yet know where in Britain he is remembered.
The inscription on the war memorial reads “They gave their lives for us. 1914 – 1918”.
The memorial to ten local men killed in the First World War was dedicated on 4 August 1921 by Dr Hubert Burge, Bishop of Oxford. It was designed by Walter Tapper FRIBA and built by Arthur W Sturley, monumental mason of Banbury.
Walter Tapper (1861 – 1935) was a distinguished architect who designed many churches and the war memorial in the Lower Chapel at Eton. He was President of the Royal Institute of British Architects from 1927 to 1929 and was appointed Surveyor to the Fabric of Westminster Abbey in 1928, where his restoration of the royal chapels led to his knighthood (KCVO) two months before his death in 1935. Also in 1935 he was also elected a full Academician of the Royal Academy.
Arthur Sturley was born in London in 1875 and appears to have moved to Banbury between 1901 and 1911. His premises were at 32 Southam Road, near Southam Road Cemetery.
The stone for the memorial was given by Captain Robert Brassey and came from the Heythrop quarry on the Brassey family’s Heythrop Park estate. Captain Brassey was the eldest son of Albert Brassey, the owner of Heythrop Park. He had served with the 17th Lancers and in 1910 was briefly Conservative MP for Banbury.
The memorial appears to have been paid for by public subscription, the full sum being finally met by a collection at the dedication service.
This information stems from an article published by the Banbury Guardian on 11 August 1921. We are indebted to Mr Bob Nelder who discovered the article.
More information on the memorial: