St Margaret Pattens Church

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The Guild Church of St Margaret Pattens

 

Memorials

An Introduction

 

In the church there are about 90 memorials of various kinds.  Of course, St Margaret Pattens is no different to other churches in that behind each memorial and tablet there is a unique story, whether it be the story of a long life faithfully lived or of a life prematurely or tragically taken.

The memorials come in various forms.  There are wall tablets, floor tablets, brass and wooden wall panels.  Some memorials are very ornate, as in the case of that of Sir Peter Delmé, Lord Mayor of London in 1723 located on the South Wall of the Chancel.  Others are very simple, for example the memorial to William Uff, Chorister, who departed this life on November 14th 1901, aged 13.  In some cases the memorial is to a person who is actually buried in the church.

Cause of death is sometimes mentioned - smallpox in the case of the wife and daughter-in-law of Sir Peter Delmé, and war in the case of Douglas Fitch, only son of the Clerk of the Pattenmakers Company, the 39 members of staff of Samuel Hanson & Son and the 105 submariners of submarine K4.

One good thing is that almost all the memorials can be viewed and read clearly from floor level.  A few, however, are either completely hidden from view, or are partially hidden by raised flooring, pews or the pulpit.

J. Harrison

Memorials – A Selection

1. Memorial to the 'K4’ Submariners

 Location: South Side Wall of the Lady Chapel

Click on thumbnail to enlarge picture and read names.

Click here for picture 

 

The memorial is in the form of a wooden triptych with folding panels.  The memorial is inscribed with the names of the Commander of the K4 class submarine, David de Beauvoir Stocks, and the 104 other crew members who perished on 31st January 1918 in a terrible accident that occurred during an exercise off the coast of Fife, Scotland.

 

The names of twelve other World War I casualties not connected with the disaster also appear on the memorial.  The memorial was unveiled by the Commander’s widow, Cheridah Annie de Beauvoir Stocks on 6th September 1918.

 

Click here for Timeline of the Events of 31st January 1918.

Here are some interesting background facts about the memorial:

  1. K4 was one of a class 18 steam-driven submarines built from 1916 onwards.  They were large, vessels difficult to manoeuvre and accident-prone.

  2. The memorial in the church is made from the timber of the old “Britannia” naval cadet training ship, Dartmouth.  David de Beauvoir Stocks had trained there from 1899 – 1900.

  3. The then Rector of St Margaret Pattens, Rev. St Barbe Sydenham Sladen, who conducted the dedication service, was the uncle, through his wife’s line, of David de Beauvoir Stocks.

  4. The Commander Stocks’ widow, Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks, was an interesting person in her own right.  She was the second British woman to obtain a pilot's certificate, (1911), but gave flying up following a plane accident in 1913.  She later gained a degree in Social Anthropology (1923) at Oxford.  She died in 1971 aged 83.

  5. Commander Stocks earned his DSO for action in the Dardanelles in World War I.

  6. His name is also commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Portsmouth.

  7. The crew of the K4, and that of the K17, are commemorated on a memorial in Anstruther Harbour, Fife.  The memorial was dedicated on 31st January 2002.  Click here for pictures of memorial

2. Charles the First, King and Martyr

Location: South Wall above the panelling and below the gold cross

Click on thumbnails to enlarge pictures.

 

The memorial contains the royal arms made up of, in the 1st and 4th quarters, the arms of France and England, and in the 2nd and 3rd quarters the arms of Scotland and Ireland respectively.  The memorial contains the following text:

 

                Touch not mine anointed

 

 Qui Leo de Juda est, et Flos de Jesse Lyrista

Carmina qui Sacro psaltere sacra dedit,

Dulcisonam Ofaciat Citheram fortesque Leones,

Fecundet florem, Carole magne tuum.

 

 

3. John Birch

Location: North Wall of Organ Gallery

    Click on thumbnail to enlarge picture.

 

John Birch (1745–1815) was a surgeon at St Thomas’s Hospital where he was appointed in 1784.  As his memorial tells us, he was opposed to dissection and smallpox vaccination and was a proponent of the use of electricity in medicine.  He opposed Edward Jenner (1749–1823) on the subject of vaccination.