The war memorial which stood near the north wall of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Belmont, was unveiled on Tuesday 11th November 1919 at 3.00 pm by the Right Reverend Handley Moule, Lord Bishop of Durham.
In spite of a heavy snowstorm a large number of relatives of the fallen and other parishioners attended the unveiling ceremony. Two wreaths were laid on the memorial, one a laurel wreath from Belmont Working Party and the other a tribute from the children of Gilesgate Moor School.
The fund for the World War II pillars were raised by means of house- to-house collections between January 10th and April 18th, 1947, and from a public dance held on April 7th. The memorial was provided by Messrs John Lowes & Sons of Durham at a cost of £180. The new Memorial was unveiled and dedicated by the vicar, the Reverend Pickles, on Remembrance Sunday, November 9th 1947, at 10.30a.m.
In 2008, the Friends of Belmont War Memorial was set up, a co-operative venture between the Parish Council and the Church. Its first step was to obtain the agreement of all concerned that the War Memorial was the property of the Parish Council. The Diocesan Registry stated this unequivocally. The next task was to improve the appearance of the War Memorial. Money was raised for this from the church, the Parish Council, the War Memorials Trust, councillors and residents of the parish. The lettering on both World War memorials was re- gilded in the early autumn of 2008.
However, during this process, it had been suggested that a better site for the memorial was available on Carrville High Street adjoining the churchyard. Publicity for this produced further donations from residents, councillors, Belmont Community Association, the church, the Barbour Trust and, most important of all, the County Durham Environment Trust. The Parish Council purchased the land from the City Council. Permissions were sought and obtained from the diocese and the County Council, and the memorial was translated to the new site, which had been carefully landscaped.
A small container was placed under the central obelisk, sadly containing nothing from the previous site as nothing had been found, but containing a personal tribute associated with J L Quinn. Also a message was left from the Friends of Belmont War Memorial.
The memorial also has a pillar with Other Conflicts and on there is the name of Rifleman Lincoln who served with the 2nd battalion The Rifles. His great-grandfather served with the Durham Light Infantry, and “Lincs.” enlisted as a Light Infantryman. He wanted to become a gunner like his great-grandfather. He arrived in Iraq in January 2007, having already volunteered for Afghanistan. He died in Basra 2nd April 2007.
Rifleman Lincoln was one of the first two soldiers whose bodies were repatriated via R.A.F. Lyneham through Wootton Bassett, a journey which became famous in 2009, when more than 100 dead soldiers from the conflict in Afghanistan were saluted by a respectful silence by the people of the town.
This is a multi-cache and can be found a short walk away at N 54° 47.ABC W 001° 31.DEF by working out the coordinates from the clues below.
A = Number of heroes who were Sergeants listed on the front of the memorial
B = Number of letters in the 8th word in the inscription on the stone surround
C = Number of letters in the surname of the last hero mentioned on the front of the memorial
D = Number of letters in the surname of the 13th hero listed on the left side of the memorial
E = Number of pillars surrounding the monument
F = Number of letters in the surname of the first hero listed on the right hand side of the monument
Checksum for numbers is 30
***** PLEASE NOTE IMPORTANT *****
CACHES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE PLACED ON ACTUAL MEMORIALS OR WITHIN THE BOUNDARY OF SUCH
AT ALL TIMES PLEASE TREAT LOCATIONS OF MEMORIALS WITH RESPECT