Great Western Railway War Memorial

Great Western Railway War Memorial
Great Western Railway War Memorial
United Kingdom
	The memorial after Remembrance Sunday, 2021
	For employees of the Great Western Railway killed in the First World War
Unveiled	11 November 1922
Location	51°30′59″N 0°10′39″W / 51.5165°N 0.1776°W; Paddington station, London
Designed by	Thomas Smith Tait (architect); Charles Sargeant Jagger (sculptor);

The Great Western Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial by Charles Sargeant Jagger and Thomas S. Tait. It stands on platform 1 at London Paddington station, commemorating the 2,500 employees of the Great Western Railway (GWR) who were killed in the conflict. One-third of the GWR's workforce of almost 80,000 left to fight in the First World War, the company guaranteeing their jobs, and the GWR gave over its workshops for munitions manufacturing as well as devoting its network to transporting soldiers and military equipment. The company considered several schemes for a war memorial before approaching Jagger to design a statue. Some officials continued to push for an alternate design, to the point that Jagger threatened to resign. Jagger was working on several other war memorial commissions at the same time as the GWR's, including his most famous, the Royal Artillery Memorial.

The memorial consists of a bronze statue of a soldier, dressed in heavy winter clothing, reading a letter from home. The statue stands on platform 1 of Paddington station, on a polished granite plinth within a white stone surround. The names of the dead were recorded on a roll that was buried underneath the plinth. Viscount Churchill, the company chairman, unveiled the memorial on 11 November 1922, in front of the Archbishop of Canterbury, GWR officials, and more than 6,000 relatives of the dead. Such was the expected size of the crowd that the GWR built viewing stands across two platforms and the tracks in between them.

Jagger's statue was the model for a memorial to commemorate the British Army's postal service, unveiled in 1981, and for a scheme in 2014 encouraging people to write a letter as part of the First World War centenary. During the COVID-19 pandemic, local communities on the GWR network laid wreaths on trains that carried them to Paddington to be laid at the memorial for Armistice Day.

The event known as Poppies to Paddington, was an initiative by The Veterans Charity working in partnership with GWR.

A Cornish veteran upset at the loss of both VE and VJ Day because of the Covid Pandemic, requested some support in creating an event that was safe to conduct during lockdowns.

Using the inspiration of the Ribbon of Poppies and the GWR Poppy trains, the idea to keep 'Remembrance on Track' was born.

Initially one train from Penzance to Paddington was requested. However GWR provided 9 InterCity trains and several local branch line services to keep remembrance 'moving' through the lockdown.

The first event won a special Pathfinder award for keeping remembrance on track.

The transport based remembrance event has since grown into the Routes of Remembrance, which create events travelling across the globe.