The War Memorial in Todmorden is one of the largest and most significant in Yorkshire and was designed and carved by eminent sculptor Gilbert Bayes. It was unveiled in 1921. The memorial was heavily inspired by the Art Deco movement and the two statues depict the ‘Lamp of Memory’ and the ‘Shield of Honour’ thought to represent the lost generation of young men who perished in the Great War and also the children who lost their fathers. They were stolen in the 1990’s and it was not until 2012 that the vision and enthusiasm for replacing these statues resulted in the funds being raised to carry out the work. My job was a long one. Initially I created scale models of the two figures using a collection of photos of the original works collected by local residents. Images of my models were then sent to the Imperial War Museum for approval prior to carving the full size pieces in stone. Eventually the finished works were unveiled on their original plinths on Remembrance Sunday 2014.
