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26
Jun
Stray Ferret reader prompts council action over 'neglected' Harrogate war memorial
A "neglected" war memorial in Harrogate has been spruced up after a Stray Ferret reader asked us to make enquiries about it.
Charles Keen contacted us this week to tell us that the Celtic cross war memorial, located where Wetherby Road meets the Stray, was “in a shocking state of neglect”.
He said:
This is not just any monument. It was erected just over 100 years ago by Grand Duchess George of Russia to honour the rehabilitation, recovery, and sacrifice of British soldiers treated in Harrogate’s military hospitals during the Great War.
Sadly, it has been allowed to deteriorate. It is currently heavily weathered, losing its inscription, overgrown with weeds and urgently needs professional cleaning and restoration to bring it back to its former glory.
A 'shocking state': how the memorial looked on Tuesday.
The inscription is almost illegible.
The Grand Duchess George of Russia was a regular visitor to Harrogate in the early 20th century. When the First World War broke out in 1914, she decided not to return to Russia, and instead devoted her time and considerable funds to founding hospitals and convalescent homes for wounded servicemen, including Tewit Well, Heatherdene, St George's and St Nicholas's.
Her hospitals treated nearly 1,200 casualties between 1914 and 1919, and in 1921 the duchess donated the war memorial to commemorate nine patients who died of their wounds, as well as all those soldiers who died in battle after leaving the hospitals.
The Grand Duchess George of Russia at the opening of St George's Convalescent Home for Wounded Soldiers on Dragon Parade in Harrogate.
The Stray Ferret contacted North Yorkshire Council, Harrogate Civic Society and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to find out which body was responsible for the memorial’s upkeep. The civic society and the CWGC both said they were not, but the council replied the next day to say that the “vegetation has been cleared”.
We went to investigate, and found the memorial looking very different from how it had looked just 24 hours earlier – the weeds had been removed and the area swept clean.
What a difference a day makes: how the memorial looks after the weeds have been cleared.
The inscription is still hard to read.
We told Mr Keen the good news. He said:
That’s wonderful. I’m deeply gratified that the council has got its act together and been able to remove the weeds.
This amazing duchess did so much for Harrogate, and I was so disappointed to find the memorial in such a sorry state.
The monument is surrounded by wooden posts supporting a spiked chain.
The posts still need some fresh paint.
He added:
Now, if the council can just send a couple of lads to give the inscription a clean and the posts a lick of paint, it’ll be as it should be – a fitting tribute to those soldiers and the lady who did so much for them.
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