Halstead WWI War memorials

Holy Trinity Church

The WWI Chapel with the moment in Holy Trinity Church was paid for by the Deacon family of Sloe House.  It was their decision not to have their family on the moment paid for by the Courtauld family located in St. Andrew's Churchyard, but rather to create their own monument in Holy Trinity Church.

The Deacon family have long historical links to the Essex Regiment and hence the majority of the war dead honoured on their memorial are from that regiment (although there are others).  Most of the men listed on the Holy Trinity memorial are not honoured elsewhere. The photo below was taken in January 2015:

Holy Trinity Church is now in the care of the Church Conservation Trust and no longer open for services, although it remains open to the public ad is sometimes used for functions.

St. Andrew's Churchyard

The memorial cross was given in 1920 by Mrs. Edian Courtauld as a thanksgiving for the safe return of her brothers from the Great War, and in memory of those from Halstead who did not return.  It was designed by Mr. F. Howard of Oxford after the model of an original fourteenth century cross in Cricklade, Wiltshire, with local details, for example the shaft is a replica of the shaft of the partly-destroyed cross at Lavenham.

On the top plinth there are eight panels depicting:-
1. The Bleeding Heart surrounded by the Crown of Thorns, symbolic of Sacrifice.
2. The Cross of St. George for the Army.
3. The Three balls, the symbol of St. Nicholas, for the Navy.
4. The Cross of St. Michael for the Air Force.
The badges of the following regiments in which the benefactor's brothers served:
5. Auckland Mounted Rifles, N.Z.
6. Royal Garrison Artillery.
7. Royal Flying Corps.
8. Royal Fusiliers.

On the Second stage is the inscription: In gratam memoriam quatuor fratrum, in hoc bello militantium; quorum quisque, pace confecta, tutus rediit, hanc crucem poni curavit soror, E.A. COURTAULD   Translation:  E.A. COURTAULD, their sister, caused this cross to be erected in grateful memory of her four brothers, who fought in this war, each of whom returned in safety when peace was accomplished.

The Second plinth lists the names and details of some of those who died in the war.  Those details are listed on our page Halstead's Fallen in WWI

The cross was dedicated on 8th May 1920 by Dr. Whitcombe, bishop of Colchester, and unveiled by Lord Byng of Vimy. Julian Byng had been an officer in the regular army and served with distinction during World War I with the British Expeditionary Force in France, in the Battle of Gallipoli of the Dardanelles campaign and as commander of the Canadian Corps.  He succeeded Sir Edmund Allenby as commander of the British Third Army. His most celebrated action with the Canadian victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, and he was created 1st Baron Byng of Vimy and Thorpe-le-Soken in 1919. Lord Byng and his wife had bought a house in Essex in 1909, and apart from six and a half years spent as Governor General in Canada, he lived in the county until he died in 1935.

The Courtaulds were a textile manufacturing family and generous benefactors of Halstead and the surrounding area, building village halls, homes of rest, houses and indeed the Royal British Legion Club at 13 The Causeway Halstead, which was previously the Courtauld's works canteen.

The memorial was created in Portland stone and is a free-standing lantern cross with a steeple roof and flint panels on the bottom.  The shaft of the cross is stands on an octagonal plinth, which is itself on an octagonal three-stepped base.  The vertical faces of the bottom step have an inscription, and the vertical faces of the two other steps are inscribed the names of those who died in the wars (although not all are mentioned there). There are carvings round the vertical faces of the plinth. It was cleaned in May 2008 and included steam cleaning, repairs to joints and replacement of any loose flint panels.

In 2018 the memorial once again underwent conservation works, which included steam cleaning and re-pointing.  The memorial is within a Grade II listed churchyard and as such permission to carry out any cleaning or works on it must come from the Town Council.

Three generations of the family, including Edian Courtauld’s husband Samuel Augustine Courtauld, who from 1916 lived at the Howe, were High Sheriffs of Essex. Samuel Augustine’s cousin, also called Samuel, endowed the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and that Samuel’s brother, Stephen, rebuilt Eltham Palace as an Art Deco masterpiece.