SACRIFICE AND VICTORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18576, 7 December 1923, Page 10

SACRIFICE AND VICTORY

CAMBRIDGE WAR MEMORIAL.

THE GALLIPOLI SOLDIER.

UNVEILING NEXT TUESDAY

The ceremony of. unveiling the Cambridge war memorial will bo performed by His Excellency the Governor-General next Tuesday. Bishop Averill will also take part in the ceremony. Designs were invited by the local committee, and that submitted by" Mr.. N. Wallnutt, of Auckland, was accepted. The construction and erection of the various elements of the memorial have been supervised throughout by him. It is based upon a 7 lay-out in the form of a cross, symbolising our Christian faith and its attendant sacrifices. At the foot of the cross is placed a sarcophagus bearing in bronze the names of those who made the supreme sacrifice. At the crux of the cross rises an, obelisk, which records with its figures and inscriptions the communal service and sacrifice. The following inscriptions are incised in the stone on the east and west sides of the shaft:— "To the Glory of God and to the"" Immortal Memory of the Cambridge men who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-1918." "They shall be as the Stones of a Crown lifted up as an ensign upon the land." The latter inscription is from Zachariah, xi., 16. Superimposed upon, the four faces of the obelisk are cross forms that are read in conjunction with the figures and inscriptions at their bases.

At the foot of the cross, on the north side, is the figure of Youth on the threshold of manhood. The New Zealand fighting unit on Gallipoli, stripped to the waist with shorts, has been taken as a type for the modelling of the figure. The sculptor has striven to express in the figure the meaning of the great war, and our own mingled feelings of sorrow in sacrifice and pride in victory. Upon the opposite side, in the shadow of the cross, lies a lion guarding . the sarcophagus, with its precious records, and expressing symbolically Imperial victory, strength, and courage. Upon the sarcophagus are three bronze tablets, of which the central bears the inscription "Tell Britain ye that mark this monument faithful to her we fell and rest content," which is adapted from Simonido's epitaph on the Spartans at Thermopylae. Enclosing this inscription is the cross symbol, and laid upon it the mediaeval sword bound with reeds and pointing down, representing a righteous peace with honour. On each side of this central panel at a lower level two panels bear the names and apes of the 72 men of the Cambridge district who gave their lives.

Rosemary shrubs support the shaft at the four corners, and cypresses form a backing for the sarcophagus. A lily pond has been introduced as a link, and as a means of adding an additional value with reflections.

".The masonry of the shaft and pedestal is Hobart stone, t{he statuary flt&Man marble, and the flagging surrounding the whole design York stone. Cost did not permit the committee to have the bronze work cast in England, and it is indebted to the untiring efforts of Mr. Gross and Messrs. A. and T. Burt, of Auckland, for obtaining the maximum artistic finish allowed by the limits of the sand-casting Erocess used in New Zealand. Cambridge as a memorial which is costing less than anything of its size and finish erected in Australia or New Zealand. Only Mr. Gross' great desire to give something worthy without consideration of cost tc himself in labour or expenditure, has made it possible to erect such a memorial at so small a cost.