Kilngate Memorial – The Royal Doulton Fallen: Their Story

The film show today is a special tribute at a time of Remembrance to the members of staff of Royal Doulton who were lost in the two World Wars.

The new Kilngate Memorial honours 59 Royal Doulton factory workers from Burslem who died in WWI and WWII - it replaces bronze plaque (referred to as a “tablet”) which was on the wall of the Royal Doulton factory in Nile Street near the main gates for many years. It disappeared a number of years ago when it was stolen. Now the bronze plaque with the roll call of names of the fallen has been re-created and we see the casting at the foundry of Meighs and Westley in Chesterton.

There was an initial memorial after WWI - and this was the Sentinel’s account of its unveiling:

The occasion was seized to unveil a memorial tablet to the members of the staff who have fallen in the war, and just before the appointed time workpeople and interested spectators, to the number of about 1,500, assembled before the tablet, which is fixed to the wall near the main gates. The Rev. T. Hervey Raborne (Vicar of Sneyd), the Rev. H. V. Aston and Mr. J. C. Bailey (Managing Dirctor of the Doulton Company) ascended the platform beneath the tablet just before the maroon was fired, and on the signal the whole assembly observed a reverent silence for the full two minutes.Then the hymn ‘Fight the Good Fight’ was sung, and at the close the Rev. T. Hervey Rabone unveiled the tablet, and offered a dedicatory prayer. The ‘Last Post’ was sounded outside the gates, and a second trumpeter some distance within echoes the notes.

Mr. J, C, Bailey then addressed the assembly. He said the chief feeling in the hearts and minds of all British men and women that day would be one of solemn pride in the heroic dead. When the great call to arms came to them, no fewer than 201 of their younger men answered it. Alas! No fewer than 44 would never return. They died that they might live a free and independent life. The firm felt that they must do some little thing to perpetuate the memory of their comrades and they, therefore, erected that tablet. It would remain there, at least as long as the building stood, and when another building took its place, those who followed would find a suitable place for it. The tablet is five feet high, and is made of Lambeth stone ware. It is simple and dignified in design, and in low tone colours.

The new bronze plaque has a further 15 names on it - to include those Royal Doulton workers who fell in WWII. It is mounted in a stone monument to stand at the corner of Swan Square, Burslem, facing across to Nile Street, where the Royal Doulton factory stood. At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.

The Royal Doulton Memorial team have also held events connected to individuals named on the memorial and documented on video by Ray Johnson of Staffordshire Film Archive.