Sileby History
Its people and places. A community through time.
WAR MEMORIALS
Sileby War Memorial, July 2018
Sileby's main War Memorial sits proudly in its enclosed garden space in the Memorial Park off Seagrave Road. It is the focus of the village's remembrance activities every November.
​
A parish meeting to discuss the question of erecting a war memorial to remember Sileby’s fallen men was set for 18th December 1918. By the end of May 1919 a scheme had been devised and £350 had been collected toward the initial £400 cost of the memorial. Plans had been submitted to the District Council and it was suggested that it should be sited on Barrow Road near to the current Herrick Close. By November the District Council had declined the Barrow Road application and had vetoed another proposed site near Dudley’s Bridge. A further parish meeting took place on the 21st November which resolved that the District Council had no right to cancel the Barrow Road plan and asked for it to be sanctioned. This too was rejected. In January 1920 large ex-army huts were erected on what is now Manor Drive and operated as the Village Institute. Eventually the memorial was erected outside of this building.
A Sileby Village Guide of 1925 describes the memorial as follows, “The design of the Memorial is the work of a local (Sileby) architect, Mr E. W. Parkinson, a member of the firm of Jones & Parkinson (Leicester). It comprises a cenotaph 17ft. high on a base of Portland Stone, with three circular steps leading thereto, surrounded on the back and sides with a stone wall, terminating on the front with ornamental piers. The work is executed in Weldon stone with mouldings of simple character, and relieved by excellent carving.
On the base is a panel with carved border inscribed “In memory of the men of Sileby who gave their lives in the Great War, 1914-18.” Above are three slate panels bearing the 89 names with “Our glorious dead” carved in stone over the front panel and surmounted with a finely carved laurel wreath… The total cost was nearly £600.” It was unveiled on Saturday 17th September 1921 by Capt R. Gee VC, MP and dedicated by the Rev P.M. Richardson.
​
The War Memorial was moved to its current location in 1953 as part of a larger scheme to reorganise and beautify the former recreation ground off Seagrave Road. The Memorial Park as it was renamed, was opened by Francis Burton, JP. The cenotaph had an extra two panels (with 33 names added) fixed to it for those that had lost their lives later in World War Two. In 1984 the memorial was given statutory status with a Grade II listing.
Sileby War Memorial - World War One
Slate Plaques listing Sileby's Fallen Soldiers 1914-1919
In 2018, a booklet entitled 'Memorial to the Past' was given to each household in Sileby. It was commissioned by Sileby Parish Council and written to commemorate a century since the cessation of hostilities in the First World War. The main part of the booklet outlines biographies of those Sileby men that had fallen whilst doing their duty.
​
Here are the biographies:
Sileby Soldiers who died during World War One
​
Surnames A - C click here
​
Surnames D - K click here
Surnames L - P click here
​
Surnames Q - U click here
​
Surnames V - Z click here
Sileby War Memorial - World War Two
Slate Plaques listing Sileby's Fallen 1939-45
War Memorial - Sileby Parish Church
War Memorials, Sileby Parish Church, 2005
Memorial (left) designed by Ernest Parkinson, the same Sileby architect who designed the main War Memorial. This impressive church monument was unveiled in 1923 by Sir Robert Martin C.M.G., and consists of tablets built of Hopton Wood marble and Westmoreland slate. Parkinson also designed the smaller monument with additional names from WWII.
War Memorial - Sileby Methodist Church
This memorial plaque (2018) adorns the wall of an inner anteroom to the Methodist chapel and hall. It was moved here from the main chapel after restoration work.
War Memorial - Sileby Working Mens Club
A commemoration of Liberal Club members, as it was then called.
This plaque has pride of place in the ground floor bar area.