The point is that they show a knight in shining armour - a figure that is an exemplar of a soldier's great virtues - nobility, honour, chivalry, courage. Of course, the knight is sometimes Saint George, the patron of England, but not always.
But what makes me so aggravated (and gloomy) about such memorials is that the Great War wasn't some medieval jousting tournament where men fought with the colours of their ladies tied to their armour. As we know the First World War was much messier.
To my mind, these knightly figures are not just a glorification of war, but a lie. Yes, they were supposed to comfort the bereaved families, but...honestly...!
More honest memorials started to come in the 1920s, usually showing a 'Tommy' in khaki uniform; and the knight-figure had all but disappeared by the time of the Second World War. During that war, conflict came home of course, with all the terrible bombing raids - and these sorts of 'chivalric' myths just wouldn't wash any more.
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I haven't seen a knight on a war memorial, but I would agree with your thoughts that the knight seems to glorify the whole messy business of war.
ReplyDeleteIf in some smothering dreams you too could pace behind the wagon that we flung him in and watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues. My friend, you would not tell with such high zest, to children ardent for some desperate glory, the old Lie; Ducle et decorum est pro patria mori.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that the memorial has the date of enlistment on it, you don't usually see that.
Beneath Thy Feet
war should just not exist.
ReplyDeletesomehow its unbelievable that it does.
everyone teaches children not to fight and share and be nice and polite. and then the adults do the most horrible things themselves...
Wilfred Owen nailed it, of course; and then was nailed by it, in turn.
ReplyDeleteBut the world was a different place then, and has turned since. Indeed, Alfred was 'in service' so he was used to the idea of 'keeping one's place' which to me is what this knight exemplifies. That the hoi-poloi were there to serve the ruling class, to dedicate their heroics and their fear to the progress of their betters. All a load of tosh that we are much better off without.
However, his date of enlistment is important here, because that is when he ceased being in service at Elmhurst Hall. He was depriving them of a lackey. Hence it was an important date.
Although it has culturally dated, I do find the stone an interesting historical relic.
I think this probably is Saint George, which makes the knight-figure a bit more acceptable, but you are right - the Boer War and Great War saw many memorials (often in stained-glass) where the dead young man, often a son of the nearby great manor, was depicted as a knight-hero.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting observation you make here... I'm thinking Robert Service said it very well in his poem "The Army of the Dead".
ReplyDelete