Walsall Cenotaph...

...and Walsall's Victorian Jubilee Memorial

Two in One!

1. The building on the back is The Victorian Jubilee Memorial, also an Institute of Science and Art.
-- the foundation stone was laid on 20 June 1887 (Jubilee Day), by the Mayor (Mr. W. Kirkpatrick), as the first Chairman of the Building Committee; the opening ceremony was performed on 24 September 1888, by Sir Charles Forster, Bart., M.P., assisted by Alderman E.T. Holden, J.P., as succeeding Chairman of the Committee.
The architects, whose designs were selected in competition, were Messrs. Dunn and Hipkins, of Birmingham. The total cost, inclusive of furnishings and fittings, was about £6,000.

2. My main memorial for today:
Walsall's Cenotaph
-- erected in October 1921 to the glory of God and in love and gratitude to the men of is borough who gave their lives in the Great World War 1914-1918.

Their name liveth for evermore

The Great War of 1914-18 came, and the town suffered from the depreations of the Kaiser's airmen in the great Zeppelin Raid of 31 January, 1916. After leaving Wednesbury that evening, flying the L21, its commander Kapitänleutnant Max Dietrich headed North for Walsall. The first bomb there landed on a Congregational church. A preparation class of children from a local primary school was meeting in the church but no-one was injured, although a man walking by outside died instantly, the top of his head having been removed by debris or blast. Dietrich flew over the centre of Walsall and his last bomb fatally wounded Julia Slater, the town's mayoress, as she rode on a tram in Bradford Place. Windows were also blown out of the Institute nearby. Walsall Cenotaph now stands on the spot where this, Dietrich's final bomb, fell.

P.S.
Cenotaph - an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person whose remains lie elsewhere.

Weather this afternoon has been absolutely fantastic! The boys were busy with their carpentry building a shed at the back garden.. The girls and kids were feeling cooped up so we went down to the Arboretum, kids with their scooter and us ladies walking. We took a few minutes at the playground, they loved it as seen here and here! We then stopped by town centre for a McSunday meal and took some home for the big boys as well.

Feeling a bit knackered now so will catch up with y'all tomoz. Nyt-nyt! Don't let the bed bugs bite! xxx