British Army 2nd Division World War I Memorial

Heritage listing

Details 991/0/10063 KNOLLYS' ROAD 19-MAY-10 British Army 2nd Division World War I Memorial II Also Known As: British Army 2nd Division World War I Memorial, HOSPITAL HILL A stone cross memorial of the 2nd Division of the British Army, erected 1923. The memorial stone cross is topped by a gable motif, with fluted shaft on a hexagonal socket and the divisional sign of crossed keys on the octagonal base. An inscription on a side panel of the socket reads: 'In memory of the Officers WOs, NCOs and men of the 2nd Division who fell in the war 1914-1918'. Details of the divisional troops, infantry brigades and regiments are inscribed on other sides of the socket. On the base is the inscription: 'Grant them O Lord eternal rest'. HISTORY: In 1852, 8000 acres of low cost heath at Aldershot were purchased as the site of the first permanent training ground for the Army, large enough to run regular summer exercises for 10 to 12 battalions at one time. Here the new railways could provide easy access to London, Dover and the main naval arsenals at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth. In February 1854 work had started on the construction of the barracks, and by 1856 North and South Camps, (later to become Stanhope and Marlborough Lines), consisting of regular grids of wooden huts, had been erected. Permanent barracks, named the Wellington Lines, were built between September 1854 and 1859. The lack of a wall around the barracks, formerly considered necessary for separateness and security, was an innovation and emphasised the difference between Aldershot and previous barracks, with their civil policing role. Aldershot was the first of the large-scale camps, followed by Colchester and Shorncliffe, and it included some of the earliest examples of a garrison church, library and gymnasium. Today

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.