(and the launch of our Memorial Restoration Fund)
“It’s utterly astonishing,” says RCSA President Mike Munroe, “that the RCS World War Two memorial stone might lie, hidden and undisturbed, for 52 years in the bowels of the Bessemer Building!
The stone weighs a whopping 120 kilos and is one of a pair that were originally located in the central portion of the Royal College of Science Building, which is the building pictured in the RCSA banner across the top of this web page.
The recently found WW2 stone, the lower of the two, was jointly funded by the RCSA and the RCSU, and was designed by Welsh sculptor Robert JR Thomas.
The still-lost upper WW1 stone was designed by Trenwith Wills. It was paid for by student and alumni subscription with the excess used to purchase the sports ground (then in Wembley) and the boat house.
“Sadly the RCS building was torn down in 1972/73, and in the ensuing chaos, the two RCS memorial stones were tragically lost, presumed destroyed. It’s incredible that the smaller of the stones should surface after being lost for so long a period.” continues Mike.
Buoyed up by the improbable discovery, Anne Barrett, of the Imperial College Archives Unit, conducted a detailed search of similar storage spaces across college and interviewed all pertinent staff responsible for those various locations hoping to locate the much larger World War One stone. But the hunt proved fruitless, and we can safely consider the larger stone forever lost.
Anne pointed out “The WW1 stone is three times the size of the WW2 stone, and would be much more difficult to hide away, unobserved.
It would be harder too, to remove it from the condemned RCS Building and to store it safely.”
Anne notes “Some damage has been sustained by the WW2 stone during the course of removal and storage. I fear similar rough treatment could easily have destroyed the larger and more susceptible WW1 stone.”
And Mike goes on to tell us of his exciting proposal: “The WW2 plaque is slightly damaged but repairable! So we now have a restorable WW2 plaque and a plan to recreate an exact replica of the WW1 plaque and we have engaged the stone masons MS-Group and their CEO Simon Morgan to carry out that work in time for Armistice Day 2024.”
And this is where you, our RCSA members come in……
We are delighted to announce the launch of our 2024 Memorial Restoration Fund to finance the reinstitution of the RCS World War One and World War Two memorial plaques.
We have an ambitious project with a tight deadline and a challenging budget of over £9,000! And so we desperately need YOUR KIND DONATIONS. Please choose a ‘Donate’ button and help us with whatever you can afford. We will publicly thank you for your generosity, so please let us know should you prefer to donate anonymously.
The Dean of RCS (or Dean of FoNS if you want to be terribly modern), Professor Richard Craster says “I fully support this exciting plan and we’ve found a fabulous location for the plaques. It is in the RCS1 building, sometimes known as ‘Old Chemistry’ which, appropriately enough, is the piece that remains of the original Aston Webb designed Royal College of Science building that was built in 1909. I encourage you all to donate whatever you can.”
Some of you may be aware that the Royal College of Science is currently the only constituent college that has neither a WW1 nor a WW2 war memorial on display that lists the names of our fallen fellow students. This has been a long-ongoing embarrassment for the RCS, particularly on Armistice Day when the college remembrance ceremonies take place in front of the RSM and C&G memorials accompanied by a banner showing a life-sized picture of the lost RCS memorials.
We will be planning our own RCS/RCSA social event around the Armistice Day memorial ceremony to celebrate the “return” of the plaques and hope to see you there….more details to follow.
But we’d ask you now, to make whatever donation you can using some of the buttons below:
A One-off donation direct from your bank:
For one-time donations sent directly from your UK bank account or sent from an international bank account that has an IBAN number. Suitable if you are not eligible for gift-aid, and if one of these amounts matches your generosity. For other amounts, please get in touch.
A donation of any value. Suitable for Gift-Aid. Bank Transfer, Credit/Debit cards and PayPal accepted:
For donations sent directly from your UK bank account or sent from an international bank account that has an IBAN number. Suitable if you ARE eligible for gift-aid. You may choose ANY amount that matches your generosity. You also have the option of paying with your credit or debit card, or of paying from your PayPal of CAF account.
