Plaque 1914-1918 Shire Hall Old Elvet

Shire Hall Old Elvet Durham DH1 3HL

Unknown

Replaced by D47.052 to include 1939-45.

Building now Hotel Indigo (2023)

1914-18

Unveiled 27th July 1921 by Cllr. Peter Lee.

Light oak

In Memory of
the members of the staff of the
Durham County Council
who fell in the Great War 1914 to 1918

Plaque.

In the top left and right corners is a County Shield with the dedication in gilt lettering between.

The names are on six panels below, the top two being horizontal, with a motif of a sword with wreath at centre, and the names in two columns on either side.

The other four panels are vertical, below, with the two outer ones being longer than the two inner ones.

The names are on a single column on each in Roman capitals throughout.

1. From the Durham County Council, 1,455 employees, including 421 police, joined the colours, and of these, 178 fell, including 52 police.

2. The idea of a war memorial commemorating the County Council staff who had died in the Great War appears to have come from the Durham County Local Government Officers’ Association.

3. In October 1919 the Association asked the Finance Committee to consider the provision of a memorial, and the matter was referred to a sub-committee. The sub-committee took a year to consider the question and in October 1920 agreed that a brass tablet should be placed in Shire Hall (the County Council’s headquarters in Old Elvet) recording those who had died and that a memorial book should be produced, listing the names of all the members of the Council’s staff who had served in the war.

4. In February 1921 the Finance Committee considered the tenders for the tablet and accepted that submitted by Messrs. Hart, Son, Peard and Co. of London, for £230. By July the County Surveyor reported that the tablets had been fixed in the ante-chamber to the Council Chamber, and asked for the Finance Committee’s instructions as to the unveiling, which took place on 27 July 1921.

5.  At the ceremony the Chairman of the County Council explained that 1,134 members of staff had joined-up and 126 had died. Peter Lee delivered ‘an impressive oration’, in which he said that the men who fought were not the cause of the war. They had simply answered their country’s call and ‘like millions more fought for what they believed was a worthy object, viz. their home land’. He described as a ‘terrible percentage’ the fact that one in eleven of those who joined-up had died.

6. In October 1922 the Clerk reported that he had arranged for photographs of the memorial to be sent to the relatives of each man named. Durham County Record Office holds 40 letters of thanks from the relatives, but unfortunately there is no surviving record of the book which listed all those who had served during the war. Although the newspaper reports of the unveiling refer to 126 names, photographs of the memorial only show 122, and this memorial only has 122 Great War names.

Old photo: North of England Open Air Museum, Beamish

Durham County Advertiser
29/07/1921 reports unveiling

Illustrated Chronicle
28/07/1921 reports unveiling.

Newcastle Daily Chronicle
28/07/1921 reports unveiling.

Northern Daily Mail
28/07/1921 reports unveiling

Seaham Weekly News
29/07/1921 reports unveiling.

Fitzhugh Collection, Middleton in Teesdale;
Dorothy Hall;
Durham County Council

If you are researching this memorial please contact 2014@newmp.org.uk