Background

Welcome to the website containing information about the Board of Trade WW1 War Memorial managed by the Trade Historians Group

You can contact us at war.memorial@trade.gov.uk or follow our Twitter feed @TradeMemorial.

The memorial (which is a replica of the original that was sadly previously lost) is now located at the Department for Business and Trade’s headquarters in the Old Admiralty Building, Central London. The replica was officially unveiled at the Department for Trade and Industry’s former offices at 1 Victoria Street over 20 years ago on 11 November 2002 by the Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. The replica memorial was subsequently moved to 55 Whitehall/3 Whitehall Place London, in 2016 on the formation of the Department for International Trade . 

The Trade Historians Group, continues to ensure that the motto of the original historical research group is maintained and “keep the memory of sacrifice alive”. 20 years on, our small group continues to lead and organise annual Remembrance commemorations and to maintain this website.

Origins and current site

This website aims to be as informative as possible for the general public, local school children, current civil servants, relatives of those who died and anyone else interested in the history of WW1 and the history of the Board of Trade. It has developed and expanded on the research started on the previous virtual memorial history pages on the former Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) website (now archived), which sadly remained unfinished.

The original DTI War Memorial Research Group was started by former DTI member of staff, Jill Knight (1949-2005) who was the author of the book “The Civil Service Rifles and the Great War: ‘All Bloody Gentlemen’”. Jill sadly died of cancer on 2 April 2005. Read a personal memoir written by Michael Forsyth (published in “Firestep”, the magazine of the London branch of the Western Front Association).

These current pages incorporate over 7 years of recent research with:

• over 305 individual blogs containing comprehensive and updated research of all the men named along with photos and details of local memorials, where known)
• a memorial calendar recording the dates when each man died alongside significant dates during WW1
• a map of where all the men came from across the UK and world and where they are either buried or remembered.
• key facts about those named on the memorial
• “More than Just a Name” photo project which as of November 2023 has located 129 photos of the 305 men

Overview

In 1914, the Board of Trade had a staff of 7,500 (including 4,800 people who were working on labour issues – mainly employed in the new Labour Exchanges).

During WW1, more than 2,000 staff left the Board to join Britain’s military forces. Of these 305 men were killed in action or died as a result of the conflict.

After the end of WW1, on the initiative of staff, a war memorial committee was established to create a Roll of Honour. This was official unveiled on 19 December 1923 in the Park or West Entrance of the Board of Trade’s headquarters at Great George Street (now the Treasury main building). The memorial was official unveiled by the then Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin (who was former President of the Board of Trade. A report of the unveiling was published in the “The Board of Trade Journal” on 20 December 1923. You can also read the text of Stanley Baldwin’s speech.

War Memorial Committee (1921-1923)

Following the end of WW1, a staff war memorial committee was established in December 1921 and met 15 times. The purpose of the committee was to verify the military details of all staff known to have died. The committee took their work with the utmost seriousness, and diligently made efforts to establish the facts through adverts in national newspapers and in the form of circulars to identify all the Board staff who had died.

The committee also supervised a staff competition to design a memorial. 15 anonymous entries were submitted with the winning entry submitted by Herbert Slicer who was the Board’s senior draughtsman. He designed a bronze plaque and frame which was topped off by a broken pediment and a representation of a galleon’s hull (inspired by the Board of Trade crest).

Unfortunately, the project was plagued by lack of funds as money appears to have been deposited in a failed bank. As a result the committee made several further requests for funds. The final design was ultimately made by William Morris Co (Westminster) Ltd and cost £158.

On completion of the memorial, around 120 photographs of the memorial board were produced and set to offices around the country with a recommendation that they be displayed prominently in each office.

Unveiling of replica war memorial – 2002

At some point between the end of WW2 and the mid 1980s, the war memorial was lost probably as a result of being put in storage and forgotten about or alternatively in an earlier office move. In November 1999, an article entitled “DTI war-dead deserve a memorial” appeared in the former DTI News trying to track down the memorial or alternatively suggesting a replacement. It was ultimately decided to commission a new DTI War Memorial (which was ultimately unveiled in 2002). The replica was made by Lambeth College, School of Carpentry students. In the lead up to the unveiling various articles were published in the staff newsletter, DTI News as follows:

• The Forgotten Men – Part 1 (October 2000)
• The Forgotten Men – Part 2 (October 2000)
• The Forgotten Men – Part 3 (story of John Cobb) (October 2000)
• Illustrated story of Edgar Donovan, Croix de Guerre (April 2002)
• Story of Robert Williams (October 2002)
• Unveiling ceremony on 11 November 2002 (December 2002)

Acknowledgements

A wide range of people have contributed to the Trade Historians Group war memorial project which was revitalised in 2016) and built on the work of the previous DTI War Memorials Project (which took place between 1999 and 2007). Our particular thanks go to those relatives of staff who died with whom we have managed to make contact and who have very generously provided photographs and other material and given permission to publish them. We also grateful to other researchers and WW1 historians.

We are also grateful to those previous retired staff who contributed to the previous project and to a number of people, present and former staff, members of the Western Front Association and the Gallipoli Association and others who took the trouble to locate and photograph, graves and memorials specifically for the project.

Copyright and Disclaimer

This website displays material, photographs and other images which are owned by third parties and are their copyright.