War Memorial - The Lee

The war memorial was erected in 1921, dedicated to those from The Lee who had given their lives during the Great War.

letter from Ivor Stewart-Liberty, ceding the land on which the War Memorial sits to the Parish Council

The memorial was organised by a committee chaired by Captain Ivor Stewart-Liberty, and the land on which it sits was given by him to the Parish Council in December 1920.

The memorial was dedicated and unveiled on 1 January 1921 by the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, Robert Wynn-Carington, Marquis of Lincolnshire, and was was made a Grade II listed building in March 2016.

It is made from granite, and takes the form of a Celtic wheel cross set on a tapering shaft, tapering plinth and square base.

Originally the cross commemorated all the local servicemen who died in the First World War, including six pairs of brothers. Following the Second World War the names of 12 men who died during that conflict were added on a plaque on the plinth. A metal plaque was subsequently fixed to the base of the memorial commemorating nine men, named on the cross, who died at Fromelles on 19 July 1916. Soil from their graves was brought back and is buried beneath the plaque.

The Lee War Memorial is inscribed with the dates 1914 – 1919, rather than the more usual 1914 – 1918. This is because, although the fighting finished with the Armistice in November 1918, the war did not end officially until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919; some troops were killed or died of their wounds in this interim period.

Above the names of those commemorated is an inscription:

To the glory of God and in memory of these men of The Lee who gave their lives for King & Country Hearth & Home Freedom & Honour in Britains war against German cruelty & aggression

On the rear of the cross there is a further incription below a sword: