Monument: Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park war memorial
{On the central section:}
1914 - 1918 1939 - 1945
Those honoured here died in the service of their country.
Their name liveth for evermore.
{16 bronze tablets, 8 each side, carry the list of 283 names. See Subjects commemorated for the names.}
The tablets are numbered with roman numerals: I - XVI. Panels 1-10 carry 198 WW1 names in alphabetic sequence. Panel 11 is headed up 'Addenda'. Panels 11-15 carry 81 WW2 names in alphabetic sequence. Panel 16 is headed up 'Netherlands Merchant Navy' and carries 4 names with WW2 dates.
The 4 Dutch names on the last panel are interesting. During WW2 the Dutch government in exile was based in London and there were sufficient Dutch members of the Allied forces that they needed their own club.
This memorial carries a lot of information about each name but it’s not clear what it all is, especially the numbers, so we’ve transcribed just the basic information for each name. Other websites have transcribed more and researched some of the names: Bethnal Green War Memorials and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park Hidden Histories Project.
Site: Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park war memorial (1 memorial)
E3, Southern Grove, Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
These rather forbidding-looking dog emptiers politely apologised for getting in our picture!
Now known as Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, this was opened in 1841 as 'The City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery' but was known simply as Bow Cemetery. Closed for burials in 1966 when the GLC took it over. In 1986 when the GLC was abolished Tower Hamlets took it on. Designated a cemetery park in 1990.
London Gardens Online is very informative but surely not correct in suggesting that this war memorial was erected c.1950. Waymarking informs that this memorial was constructed in 2009 (that is more likely) to replace an earlier memorial which was at the centre of the park. Wish we could find a picture of that because, let us own up - we have rather taken against this memorial: it's almost brutally modern; there is too much information squeezed onto the bronze panels; the layout and the lettering on the panels has no elegance and looks as if it was designed by computer, which it probably was.
