Greenock War Memorial

On this day 100 years ago, Britain declared war after Germany invaded neutral Belgium in a conflict most people thought would be over by Christmas. Instead, the first world war lasted more than four years in a war of conflict that killed more than 9m soldiers. The spark was set on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary decided to settle the thorny question of Serbian nationalism once and for all by issuing an ultimatum it knew was unacceptable. As it went to war with Seribia, Russia backed Serbia, Germany fell behind the Austro-Hungarian empire. Britain and France aligned themselves with Russia.

On the way home I photographed the Greenock war memorial, which stands in front of the entrance gates of Wellpark in Regent Street, Greenock. It was unveiled on Saturday 4th October 1924.

The architect of the memorial was Messrs. Wright & Wylie and the sculptor Alexander Proudfoot, both of Glasgow. Proudfoot was born in Liverpool of Scottish parents and served in the Artists Rifles in WWI. During the war he also designed and patented a new form of protractor / rangefinder for the Vickers machine gun and later began to model relief landscapes of the trenches for army intelligence. After the war he became head of sculpture at Glasgow School of Art. The war memorial is loaded with symbolic meaning and Celtic traditions. At the base of the obelisk is the prow of a viking ship, and above is the winged figure of Victory holding up the laurel wreath of victory.