The Brooding Soldier Memorial

[Michael]

One of my favourites too

Mick

[Michael]

.... and another

[steve fuller]

Hi Kate

Noticed your signature - that memorial inscription had stayed with me from the day I first saw it. Says it all I feel. Nice to see it on here too (I ran out of room in my signature, so couldnt include it!)

Have you researched the Dunmow mem, as I have done the basics (CWGC, SDGW & MIC´s) & am planning to pop it on my site when completed.

[KateJ]

Comes from the book below

There's other accounts of the gas attack in the book

Max Arthur "Forgotten voices". Buy it through our Amazon link and you help raise funds for the Forum.

[KateJ]

Michael - excellent photos. Thanks for posting them

Kate

[KateJ]

Hi Kate

Noticed your signature - that memorial inscription had stayed with me from the day I first saw it. Says it all I feel. Nice to see it on here too (I ran out of room in my signature, so couldnt include it!)

Have you researched the Dunmow mem, as I have done the basics (CWGC, SDGW & MIC´s) & am planning to pop it on my site when completed.

Hi Steve

Yes I've got a lot of info about the men on the Dunmow memorial (my home town) including schools some attended, photos and obits from newspapers. Spent bank holiday w/e in Ypres photographing graves/memorials of some of the men. It's a long on-going project with me.

Have you managed to track down the two elusive Smiths on the memorial?

Kate

[Jan Nix]

Michael

Enjoyed your photos. I had wondered what the brooding soldier looked like by night, but never got the chance to visit after dark. Now I know. Brilliant.

Regards

Jan

[shaymen]

Kate

One of my favourites also.

Glyn

Thanks again for the pics you sent and love all those you have posted recently.

Glad you had a good trip.

[Simon Jones]

The Brooding Soldier was designed by F C CLEMESHAW 1921.

If you look up his attestation form online you will see that he served in the Canadian Army Service Corps and that he was a Quaker.

Regards

Simon

[ceebee]

Some information about the designer.

Frederick Chapman Clemesha was born in Preston, Lancashire on 3 August 1876 to Alfred Clemesha and Laura (Westley) Clemesha of Leighton Buzzard, Bucks, England. Educated at the Friend’s School, Bootham, Yorkshire, he was at the time of the 1891 Census a tea dealer’s assistant (grocer). During the 1890s he left England, and gained experience over several years on tea estates in Ceylon followed by three years ranching in Argentina.

In 1901 he immigrated to Canada, spending two years on western ranches before settling in Regina in 1903. On 4 August 1914 he married Isabel Riddell of Preston. Enlisting in September 1915 (see attestation paper), he served as a lieutenant with the 46th Battalion, Canadian Infantry, being wounded in the cheek. At the time of enlistment he gave his “trade or calling” as architect.

After the war he continued his architectural work, practicing in partnership with Francis H Portnall. The firm carried out many private and public works in Regina. It appears that some time after 1922 Clemesha left Regina. This probably corresponds with the completion of his entry design for the Vimy Memorial, which gained second place behind Walter S Allward. Clemesha’s design was accepted for the unique memorial at St Julien. Clemesha moved to California, dying in San Diego c. August 1958. He had two sons.

These notes have been compiled from several sources including: Veterans Affairs Canada, anglo-celtic connections, and rootsweb (Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan).

[Simon Jones]

Thank you Ceebee for the very interesting information. Do you have any idea how a Quaker came to serve as an infantry officer?

Regards

Simon

[ragamuffin]

Hallo

I have read this book and in it is an account of a soldier (s) with no official account. Maybe the confusion of battle? According to regimental diaries and German diaries, there was no proof of actual British shooting of their own side, on such a mass scale. It would be hard to imagine the uproar and the lessen of morale if this was ever found out to be true.

But I could be wrong, but I believe this to be true, unless someone has concrete evidence to prove otherwise.

Danke

[ackimzey]

Excellent and moving pictures, thanks for sharing.

Ann

[ceebee]

Thank you Ceebee for the very interesting information. Do you have any idea how a Quaker came to serve as an infantry officer?

Regards

Simon

Simon

I must confess I know little about the Quakers. Out of interest I went to a few websites, one of which (see here) provides information about their beliefs and practices. Having read the material it does seem curious that a Quaker would have volunteered for armed service (Clemesha volunteered in Sept. 1915, well before compulsory military service in Canada was introduced in 1917). The Quaker's opposition to warfare is well noted, as is their refusal to take oaths (such as the oath of allegiance to King George the Fifth on Clemesha's attestation paper).

Is it possible Clemesha's belief's were more towards the liberal end of the spectrum? Given that he was 39 years of age when he enlisted there may also have been a particular personal reason for his enlistment.

Chris.

PS

I have some further material about the memorial to post tomorrow.

[ceebee]

Here is some more background and information. I started research on this memorial a while ago, so I'm pleased to be able to share some of my results. As you read the following notes it might be helpful to pan up to the photos provided in previous posts. I've also included a photo by Steve Emp from the firstworldwar website. Other sources used included the websites of: Veterans Affairs Canada; The Canadian Encyclopedia; and The Great War in Flanders Field.

At the end of the war, the Imperial War Graves Commission awarded the Canadian Government eight battle sites on which memorials could be erected. These sites, three in France and five in Belgium, were at Bourlon Wood, Courcelette, Dury, Hill 62 (Sanctuary Wood), Le Quesnel, Passchendaele, St Julien and Vimy.

In 1920, the newly formed Canadian Battlefields Monument Commission elected to run a juried competition to assist with the choice of designs for the memorials. Guidelines formed by the Commission required the memorials to be highly visible, permanent in nature, incorporate figures and be designed for a landscaped setting.

Results were announced by the Commission in October 1921. The winning entry was by Toronto sculptor and memorial designer Walter S Allward. Second place was awarded to the design by Frederick Chapman Clemesha. In the summer of 1922 the Commission chose Vimy Ridge as the location for the winning design.

Clemesha’s design, originally selected for the remaining seven sites, became a unique memorial erected at St Julien. It appears the jury was so moved and impressed by the memorial at the unveiling on 8 July 1923 by HRH the Duke of Connaught that it decided not to replicate the design. Other factors, including cost, may have influenced this decision too. Hence, the other six sites were eventually marked by a 13 tonne block of Stanstead (Quebec) granite set on a slightly raised platform of stone flagging within a landscaped setting of circular lawns, pathways, trees, shrubs and hedges. The design for these sites was undertaken with assistance from the architectural advisor P E Nobbs.

The St Julien memorial comprises a slightly tapered shaft of coursed white granite blocks from which emerges the partial figure of a helmeted soldier, head bowed, in the position of arms reversed. Approximately 11 metres tall, the structure rises from a stone-flagged platform, similar in configuration to ones at the six other Canadian memorial sites. Further links to the other sites are made with the landscaped setting, which incorporates a circular lawn, paved pathways, trees and shrubs.

Clemesha employed several features to integrate the soldier with the angular blockwork of the shaft. These include:

• geometricised sculpturing of the rifle, uniformed forearms, hands, ammunition pouches and helmet

• horizontal scoring of the soldier’s torso and upper arms repeating the diminishing block form of the shaft (assuming the soldier is a single piece of stone)

Other features contributing to the sculptural qualities are:

• deeply creased sculpturing of the uniform creating strong shadow lines – this makes features of the uniform more evident from a distance

• chamfered corners of the blockwork – narrowed at the base and widening towards the top, contributing to the tapered form

• gradual reduction in the height of the blockwork as the structure rises – this combined with the tapering has an effect to lead the eye to the top.

Clemesha produced two maquettes (study models) of the memorial; one in wood and plaster, the other in plaster. These models are now displayed in the Government of Saskatchewan’s Legislative Building Art Collection. See my next post for photos.

[ceebee]

The two study models now housed in the art collection of the Government of Saskatchewan's Legislative Building.

The first is a painted plaster model, circa 1922, 82.0 x 70.0 x 49.0 cm

[ceebee]

And the second (view one).

Wood, plaster and paint, circa 1922, 172.0 x 73.5 x 43.0 cm

View two.

[ceebee]

In a previous post I mentioned that the sculptural style employed by Frederick Chapman Clemesha had been used elsewhere in various forms. Here are two examples showing an integration of a sculptural human form with architecture. Both designs predate Clemesha’s work at St Julien.

The first is a work from Frank Lloyd Wright, the American architect, at Midway Gardens in Chicago (1914). The cast concrete sculptures, called Sprites, were created by Wright and produced by the sculpture Alfonso Iannelli. One of the highly geometricised figures called Sprite with Solemn Face is shown from two angles.

Source: Alofsin, A, 1993, Frank Lloyd Wright The Lost Years 1910-1922: a Study of Influence, The University of Chicago Press.

[ceebee]

The second example comes from the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, and bears many similarities to Clemesha’s brooding soldier. This memorial was designed in 1921 by the architect Harold Van Magonigle, with White and White. It comprises a memorial shaft rising 66 metres (217 ft) above a court area. Four engaged piers carry “Guardian Spirits”, sculpted by New York artist Robert Aitken. Each Spirit is 12.2 metres (40 ft) tall and weighs 9.9 tonnes (11 tons US). These Spirits represent Honour, Courage, Sacrifice and Patriotism. Honour is characterised by a wreath of laurel, Courage by a helmet, Patriotism by a civic crown and Sacrifice by a winged star on the forehead. Each figure emerges from a pier and has hands clasped upon an upturned sword, representative of military guardianship.

The image below shows Courage.

Source: Reyolds, D.M., 1993, Masters of American Sculpture: the Figurative Tradition from the American Renaissance to the Millennium, Abbeville Press

[ceebee]

The next image shows the memorial itself.

Source: The Troubleshooters website

[ceebee]

The final image shows two Spirits, Courage on the right and Patriotism on the left.

Source: The Troubleshooters website

[SilverSoldier]

I too was there but on Friday 30th June, a beautifull sunny day.

Memorial is simple but impressive, serves it's purpose well, to commemorate the fallen of Canada.

Excellent photographs.

Terry W.

[J Banning]

Hoping that someone can point me to a source for my question below:

I have been told in the past by someone (who I’d better keep nameless) that if Chapman Clemesha’s Brooding Soldier Memorial had been chosen as the winner of the competition to design the Canadian War Memorial and been built on Hill 145 at Vimy Ridge (the site of Allwards’s Vimy memorial now), then it would have been 10 times the size of the sculpture at St Julien. This would make it absolutely massive. Has anyone else ever heard this, and if so, can you point me to your source?

With thanks

Jeremy

[J Banning]

Blatantly bumping this question up again as had no response.

Any ideas/comments etc?

ta

[ceebee]

Jeremy

It took me a while to go through my research material, but I think I can provide some information on your issue.

If the monument's size was to be enlarged by ten, it would be approximately 110 metres tall. This in fact is far taller than the Vimy Ridge Memorial, the pylons of which are 27 metres above the base of the monument according to documentation published by Veterans Affairs Canada. VAC also states that "Because of the height of the Ridge, the topmost figure - that of peace - is approximately 110 metres above the Douai Plain to the east." Other sources I have sighted nominate heights of 40 and 45 metres for the two pylons.

VAC has a page about the design competition for the WW 1 memorials on its website (see here).

The last image on the page, shown below, has some interesting commentary about the St Julien memorial. There is one statement which suggests a height of 150 feet (about 45 metres) is necessary in certain contexts. (Noting that the original intention was for a single design for all eight sites)

A transcript of the text is provided below:

Cultured Europe will look to Canada for something more than good taste – something of bigness, vigour and untrammelled youth should find expression – for our part we do not wish to brag or to glorify militarism. To a citizen soldier and to the parents of the 60,000 who did not return, the thought of achievement and victory cannot be disassociated from the thought of sacrifice. To this end the military position “Resting on Arms Reversed” will be recognised as a soldierly expression of such a thought, the emblem and inscription may claim victory.

The design is worked out for coursed masonry as indicated on photos of the model but I feel that concrete would be appropriate to such sites, the latter would be big and vigorous and something of a departure, though not without precedence.

The size of this monument would be approximately 15’ x 11’ at base of shaft and 65’ high, leaving 13,000 (?) for circular base, brick paving and small shelters at entrance to site.

It appears that the height of a monument of the type shown would not exceed 65 or 70 feet to come within the cube (?)mentioned.

Trees very properly are contemplated. These and the trees already planted by the inhabitants will in time attain a height of not less than 70 or 80 feet, therefore it will be difficult to attain a result giving these monuments interest as landmarks in a strictly architectural sense. (At least 150’ high would be necessary to this end.)

I would suggest that a cumulative effect can better be achieved by a similarity in the type and setting out of the trees. (coniferous trees would be appropriate if practicable). Were the country park-like as parts of England, trees might be kept at a sufficient distance to leave the monument dominating the landscape, but the spectacle of a monument rising out of the patchwork of small cultivated plants would be unfortunate, a feeling of seclusion and separateness should be sought. Ruskin expressed it well in the following lines: “In contemplating any memorial we are apt to feel as if it were weak and inefficient, unless we have a sense of its publicity; but this want is amply counterbalanced by a corresponding advantage; the public monument is perpetually desecrated by the familiarity of unfeeling spectators, and palls gradually upon the minds even of those who revere it, becoming less impressive with repetition of its appeals; the secluded monument is unprofaned by careless contemplation where the mind is best prepared to listen to its language.”

Ample tree masses will reduce the area requiring up-keep. The lay-out indicated would suit all sites with the exception of Vimy Ridge, where I would suggest a semi-circle of trees calculated not to grow higher than one-third to one-half of the height of the monument, with the balance of the site perhaps sown with Alfalfa and cropped by an adjacent property owner in return for small service in connection with the site.