On this day – Horsham’s War Memorial unveiled

It was in 1921 on November 13 that Horsham’s War Memorial was first unveiled (pictured below)!

It was during a special Armistice Sunday in the Carfax and local readers will note that the memorial was first sited a few yards away from its current location (moved during the town redevelopment).

Beforehand, a report in the local paper announced that Major-General J.C. Young, Colonel of the Royal Sussex Regiment, would be doing the unveiling. However, he may have been a bit disappointed to read in the report that he wasn’t actually first choice!

That honour went to General Lord Horne, but the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (Eastern Command) wasn’t able to come along.

A space at the ceremony was the be reserved for relatives of those whose names appeared on the memorial and they were supplied with a ticket.

On the day itself it was a frosty but sunny day and thousands of townsfolk turned out.

The service was due to start at 3pm but an hour beforehand four members of the Horsham Company of the 4th Sussex Regiment took up their position as sentries at each corner of the memorial.

Fifty to 60 policemen marched into the Carfax from East Street to guard the roped-off enclosure for relatives of the men mentioned on the memorial.

More police controlled the traffic so the procession could make its way from the Town Hall. This was headed by the Regimental Band.

Major-General Young then addressed the gathering, saying: “As we stand round this Memorial our thoughts instinctively are centred on the dark years of the war, when so many men of Horsham, with others in the land, passed into the unknown; when every village in Sussex was stricken, and when there was sorrow in almost every home.”

Once the Memorial was unveiled, hymns were sung and prayers given before the assembled guests moved off to allow the crowd to get a closer look.