Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

The Waggoners Memorial: A Sense of Place  

A lecture by Dorothy Nott

Following the carnage of the First World War, there was a widespread desire to remember those who were killed in the conflict, and the extreme numbers of the dead led to new ways of marking their sacrifice, both at home and where they fell. Throughout Europe, survivors struggled to give form to their memories in poetry, song and visual art.  Sculpture was a particularly apposite method of remembrance, as it provided a permanent space where public and private grief could be expressed.

This lecture will examine the story behind the formation of the Waggoners’ Reserve as revealed on the memorial erected to commemorate their call up and experiences between 1914 and 1918. It will look at the way in which this unusual, and somewhat eccentric, monument reflects both the cosmopolitan interests of Sir Mark Sykes of Sledmere and those of the waggoners against the specific backdrop of the Yorkshire Wolds.

Report

Dorothy Nott researched this unusual World War I monument in Sledmere for her MA in History of Art, and presented a fascinating account of its origins and content. In twelve panels of Portland stone, it tells the story of the Waggoners’ Special Reserve, established by Sir Mark Sykes with war looming.  Pevsner may have dismissed Carlo Magnoni’s carving as ‘curiously homely’, but we saw how Magnoni had faithfully reproduced Sir Mark’s own designs, influenced perhaps by both Trajan’s column and the Bayeux tapestry, fond tribute to the 34 Wolds estate workers who did not return from France (a surprisingly small number) but also to the thousand who did. Sadly Sir Mark did not live to see it unveiled himself, succumbing to Spanish flu at the Paris peace talks of 1919, but each November a century later Sledmere proudly pays tribute to the waggoners’ service in their country’s hour of need.

Bob Hale