St Cuthberts Church First World War Memorial, Naremburn

The architectural firm of Waterhouse and Lake designed St Cuthbert’s Church in Naremburn in 1915. In March 1917 the church decided to build a memorial wall with a “terracotta” plaque to remember those who had been killed in the First World War. A memorial brick fence and plaque was designed by the architects Waterhouse and Lake. Work was supervised by the local builders and parish members Wear and Pontey. The brick wall was dedicated on 21 December 1917, while the name plaque carrying names of the dead, carved from trachyte, was completed and built into the wall at the corner of the site in December 1918, a month after the war had ended. The plaque and its surrounding brickwork frame was of substantial size being over 2.5m tall. It appears that the wall was designed by the architect John Lake while the plaque was designed by his business partner B.J. Waterhouse.

The plaque fuses a serlian motif with a flat pointed arch that matches the heads of the lancet windows set into the church’s walls. The design of the fence appears to have been problematic - set with an English bond pattern the square openings in the brick fence would have required small lintels over each opening, probably made from steel or iron. The upper part of the fence, and the trachyte plaque were pulled down sometime before 1965. It is likely that rusting of the exposed lintels required demolition of the open brickwork. Only the base courses of the brick fence remain as of 2009.

The trachyte plaque currently resides inside the church. The plaque records 42 dead from the parish, a significant number for such a small parish. These includes six men killed at Gallipoli, including Private Sydney Andrews killed a day after the initial landing. Also named was Private William Wilson Clark, NSW Amateur Boxing Champion.