The memorial in Holy Trinity

I tried to find a picture of Holy Trinity Church and was surprised to hit a brick wall. There just don't seem to be any pictures of it around. Then a member of the Liverpool and South West Lancashire Family History Society forum shared this image with me, the interior of Holy Trinity.

The image is a scan of an old photograph that has been downloaded from ebay... I was a bit concerned about copyright before posting it on here but then realised that as the church was demolished in 1940 the photo is at least 70 years old and therefore in the public domain.

Anyway, if you look to the right of the photo you will see a memorial on the wall. It has a carved figure of Christ on the cross but other than that it matches the 'unknown memorial' very well. A local historian who is researching St James informed me that the church records show there was some discussion as to whether they should receive a memorial from Holy Trinity in 1940 as it had a prominent cross (as an evangelical church, St James does not have any crucifixes on display) so it would seem likely that they removed the figure before accepting the plaque.

Later records, after St James was closed, refer to the plaque from Holy Trinity and mention that it has the name of Dr Noel Chavasse on it... another corroboration.

So there you have it, proof that the memorial plaque is from Holy Trinity church... I will add the documentary evidence that I have referred to once I have suitable images of them.

The inscription on the roll of honourf panel refers to the chancel screen being part of the war memorial, it is too blurry to really be made out on this photo but I wonder what happened to it? Unless the diocese kept records I guess we'll never know.

Holy Trinity War Memorial

This project has been gathering pace lately so I thought I'd better get started on recording it...

The war memorial in question was photographed in 1996 by the late Major David Evans for the United Kingdom National Inventory of War Memorials. At this time the memorial was part of the decor in a Liverpool pub (the Slaughterhouse on Fenwick St). It was listed on UKNIWM as from an 'unknown Liverpool Anglican Church.' Sometime later the pub was redecorated, sold and the memorial vanished. I know that enquiries were made at the time but nobody seemed to know where it went.

The Holy Trinity Memorial in the Slaughterhouse Pub, Liverpool circa 1996

Photo courtesy of UKNIWM

The memorial was brought to my attention last year when my St James memorial project got some publicity, a lady contacted me to ask whether her relative was on the memorial I was researching. It wasn't but I did a bit of detective work and found out that his name was on this 'unknown memorial' and I decided to see if the unknown memorial was linked to St James, it wasn't directly linked but I kept coming across connections to Holy Trinity Church, which was demolished in 1940. I finally realised that Holy Trinity had been amalgamated with St James. 

Recently I have come across evidence that the memorial was definitely moved to St James, it was displayed there until after the church was closed down. Apparently the memorial was removed from the church for restoration then forgotten about and ended up in the pub! 

So, I have succeeded in naming the 'unknown memorial' and proved that it belongs to St James' Church. Now comes the hard part... finding it!

I am trying to get the local media interested in the story and at the same time hope to get a group of local WW1 history enthusiasts together to help research the men on this memorial.  Their names, any information we find about them , and progress in the search will be posted on this blog.

Thanks for visiting!

If you have any suggestions for our search, please leave a comment or email me at thewarmemorial@gmail.com

Amanda