Exeter dedicates memorial to unrecorded fallen of the First World War

On Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015, Exeter College dedicated a new memorial in the College Chapel.

The memorial, generously sponsored by the Tolkien Trust and designed and executed by Oxfordshire-based engraver Giles Macdonald, commemorates those members of the College who died in the First World War and who are not commemorated elsewhere in the College. This group includes many members of College staff whose names were never recorded.

The memorial is made from Cornish slate, tying in the College’s West Country origins. The wording is shaped to hint at the shape of the chalice – the cup used for the wine at the Eucharist – and thus implies the sacrifice of Christ, that we celebrate at every Communion Service.

The dedication concluded the 2014 project that former Rector Dame Frances Cairncross and the College Chaplain, Andrew Allen, carried out to visit the graves of the Exonians who fell during the First World War. For more information on their trip, please click here.

This special service of remembrance and dedication was attended by students, Fellows, alumni, College staff and visitors. The Chaplain preached on how remembrance should lead to transformation and the Chapel Choir sang John Tavener’s Funeral Ikos and Exhortation and Kohima.