IN STRUENDO HOC AEDIFICIO ARCHITECTUS HERBERTUS BAKER MACHINATOR OSCAR FABER REDEMPTORES HOLLOWAY FRATRES MAGR OPERUM ALBERTUS CLARKE
Which translates as:
In constructing this building:
Architect - Herbert Baker
Structural engineer: Oscar Faber
Contractors/Engineers: Holloway Brothers
Management: Albert Clarke
The Harrow School War Memorial Building, Memorial Shrine, Ceremonial Staircase and Retaining Wall are Listed Grade 2. The Listing summary text is: "2-storey and basement Neo-Jacobean war memorial building with cenotaph memorial and accompanying ceremonial steps, Sir Herbert Baker, 1921-1926. Red brick with ashlar and flintstone base course and ashlar dressings."
Heritage Calling has a photo of the "... gated and vaulted loggia {which} houses the sacred Memorial Shrine with a lamp that must remain lit at all times in memory of the 642 students who died in the First World War. Within the Shrine is a austere sarcophagus decorated with a carved sword and wreaths. Wall panels are inscribed with the names of the fallen ...". This loggia is to the left of our photo at the lower level.
That blog also gives: "Elizabethan oak panelling and fittings were brought here from Brooke House, Hackney, including an ornate stone fireplace, with carvings from the period of Henry VII. The teak boards used for the floor came from HMS St Vincent, a Napoleonic battleship built at Plymouth in 1815."
"Management" is our guess at a translation for "MAGRE OPERUM" which is possibly an abbreviation and so the on-line translators can't cope.
Site: Harrow School - 5 memorials (5 memorials)
HA1, Peterborough Road, Harrow War Memorial Building and Speech Room
In our photo, reading left to right: the WW1 memorial plaque is just to the right of the lamppost; the War Memorial Building plaque is one of those in the flint wall; the redbrick building at the right is the Speech Room - the road-side wall of which has the statue of Elizabeth and the Speech Room plaque is partially obscured by the top of the pig-pen railing end-post.
The Hamilton plaque is fixed inside the building, almost immediately behind the statue.
The Speech Room building was constructed 1872-7, designed by William Burges. The War Memorial building was constructed as a memorial to the 600 Old Boys of Harrow school lost in WW1. More information at the Listing entry.
