Having raised more than £10,000 to restore the Wanstead War Memorial, the community-backed project is ready to begin, but council delays are holding up the work, says Revd James Gilder
They always say “never volunteer for something you don’t know you can finish.” Perhaps I ought to have taken that advice before trying to get our war memorial restored! Mind you, if everyone followed such advice, I doubt much would ever be accomplished.
You will recall that, starting from the VE Day 80th anniversary celebrations, we have been raising money to restore the Wanstead War Memorial, which stands proudly on the small green next to Tarzy Wood. Originally erected in 1922, the memorial has weathered all kinds of storms (and a further world war), and for some time now has looked rather worse for wear. By the late 1980s, the names on the memorial had been so damaged the tablets bearing them had to be replaced, but bizarrely, no record had been kept of the original names; close observers will note there are many spaces with names missing. These facts were not known to me when I started this project! Yet, I am hugely grateful to an anonymous historical researcher for doing a great deal of the work to discern the missing names, and we now have them all.
You have been hugely generous, and the kitty stands at over £10,000. This will allow us to complete phase one of the project, restoring everything but the names. Then we can move on to phase two, replacing the stone tablets with ones more suited to the original Portland stone, and crucially with the name of every Wanstead person who fell in the Great War, as well as the name of the much-loved Tom Curry, who gave his life serving in Afghanistan in 2007. Apparently, there was a discussion after World War Two as to whether further names should be included; it was decided that, given the Blitz caused so many civilian casualties, there would be insufficient space.
It has now been 15 months since we started this campaign, and those who have donated may be inclined to wonder what the Rector has done with their money! Rest assured, it is very much waiting to be spent, and we have a reputable contractor in place waiting to do the work. There is one snag, however. I am not one to routinely knock the council, and I am grateful to Councillor Jo Blackman and former councillor Paul Canal, both of whom have been tremendously helpful. But I have to say, dealing with council officers to give us permission to do this work has been a task. You would have thought, given that we are saving them money by raising these funds from the community, they would be falling over themselves to say: “Yes, please get on with it!” But there has been delay after delay. I have now received an apology for this, with an assurance they are ‘on it’. But frustratingly, I doubt we will now be able to complete the works before Remembrance Day, which was my aim. I will keep pursuing them until I get permission, and then will waste no time in getting the work booked in. Thank you for all your support with this important project and I will continue to keep you posted!
For more information on the restoration fund, visit wnstd.com/wwm
