Qualla: Port Sunlight War Memorial

Port Sunlight War Memorial: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Man vyi, Public domain. Sergeant Eames had been blinded at the Somme. Private Robert Cruickshank had been awarded the Victoria Cross for charging Turkish positions in Palestine. On 3 December 1921, the two of them - chosen by ballot of all the Lever ex-servicemen - stood together at the heart of Port Sunlight and pulled the covers off the new war memorial. There was no royalty, no archbishop, no field marshal. William Lever, the soap magnate who had built the village, had insisted that the men who had served should be the ones to do this. Over 4,000 of his employees had gone to the war. Five hundred and three had not come back. The memorial they unveiled that December afternoon now stands at the geographic centre of Lever's model village, where its two broadest avenues - The Causeway and The Diamond - cross.

Image: Man vyi | Public domain

Port Sunlight War Memorial: Defence of the Realm

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Squire, CC BY-SA 2.0. Most war memorials of the period showed soldiers, angels, or grieving women. Lever wanted something different. As chairman of the Empire War Memorial League he had thought hard about how to commemorate a war that had threatened civilians as well as armies. Although he was 63 when...

Image: David Squire | CC BY-SA 2.0

Port Sunlight War Memorial: The Sculptor's Eye

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Zcarstvnz, CC BY-SA 4.0. Goscombe John was already in his sixties when Lever approached him in 1916, but he was at the peak of his powers. He had trained in Paris under Rodin's contemporaries and brought a French sensibility to British public sculpture. For Port Sunlight he produced eleven larger-than-li...

Image: Zcarstvnz | CC BY-SA 4.0

Port Sunlight War Memorial: Four Reliefs Around the Parapet

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Acediscovery, CC BY 4.0. Around the circular parapet at four points face the road, Goscombe John set four bronze reliefs depicting the services. The Naval relief. The Military relief. The Anti-Aircraft relief - an acknowledgement of how the war had brought bombing to civilian skies. The Red Cross relief,...

Image: Acediscovery | CC BY 4.0

Port Sunlight War Memorial: Two Wars and a Promotion

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 4.0. By the time the Second World War ended, new names needed adding. The dates 1939-1945 were carved on the lower part of the back of the plinth, with the additional dead inscribed alongside the originals. The memorial was first listed for protection on 20 December 1965 at Grade II -...

Image: Rodhullandemu | CC BY-SA 4.0

Port Sunlight War Memorial: Standing at the Crossroads

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rept0n1x, CC BY-SA 3.0. Lever's model village was built around a moral argument: that working people deserved beauty, fresh air, and dignity in equal measure with wages. The streets are wide. The cottages are picturesque. The Lady Lever Art Gallery sits at one end of The Diamond. Every part of the villa...

Image: Rept0n1x | CC BY-SA 3.0