Location
North-West of the Church building, adjacent to St Mary's Road
Description
World War 1 Memorial Cross erected by the Portsea Parishioners.
Further Information
[Extract from the Friends of War Memorials web site.]
During the First World War communities made lists of local men and women who were
serving. As news of casualties reached home these lists became revered objects; often
placed outside churches and other conspicuous sites, they became decked with flowers. After
the Armistice, decisions were made to build permanent memorials (although some were built
during the war years). Memorials took many forms, for example, village halls or cottage
hospitals as well as the more familiar public monument. The most usual method of funding
was public subscription. A committee would be formed which included representatives of
local government and other prominent individuals. Their task was to oversee the funding and
construction of a memorial. Many committees held public meetings where the views of local
people could be heard and when decisions about the type and site of the memorial could be
made. There was no legislation about the building of memorials, the impetus and methods
employed were ad hoc and varied from place to place. Some memorials were sited outside
churches or in churchyards, where a faculty from the local diocese had to be obtained,
sometimes the local landowners gave a piece of land for the purpose, or the memorial could
be sited at a place which was regarded as public. Sometimes this was allocated by the local
council, but often it was common land felt to belong to everybody.
