The War Memorial at Gloucester Park was built on land the Gloucestershire Regiment had purchased to establish a secular memorial, it was officially unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Plumber on the 28^th March 1925 after some years of various committee discussions and having hit many hurdles along the way. 

Officially it is in memory of the 1060 officers and men of the 1/5th and 2/5th Battalions of the Gloucestershire Regiment and known as the Fifth Gloucester’s’ Memorial. 

The inscription reads:

In November 1930, however, reports were beginning to be published regarding the need for a memorial that would commemorate all Gloucestershire’s casualties. “These our Valiant Dead joined up in a great variety of units... on various services.” This made specific reference to the fact that naval or air force casualties and other army regimental casualties were not being properly commemorated.

“Our honour to their memory will not be completely filled until the Roll Of Honour is inscribed in a durable place of Remembrance, where forever this proud record of unstinted service may make its mute appeal to this and all generations with the same full measure of duty and devotion.”

The final Gloucester plan was a low, semi-circular wall of Portland stone of approximately 120 feet and was anticipated to give an added beauty to the 5th Gloucestershire Regiment memorial. Bronze plaques would be affixed to the semi-circular wall with the names of all 1300 casualties of the men of Gloucester. This would be in addition to those already listed on the Gloucestershire Regiment’s memorial.

The main inscription of the memorial above the plaques reads ‘1914-1918 The Men of Gloucester’. This would be affixed to the semi-circular wall with the names of all 1300 casualties of the men of Gloucester (WW2 names were obviously added later). The inscription, like the memorial in Cirencester, can be understood incorrectly, as there is one woman’s name, Mrs J.M. Haines VAD, included as a Great War casualty. Her name is included alphabetically (the only indication is the Mrs. noted beside the inscription). Recognition of this fact demonstrates that women of Gloucestershire also played their part in the war, but as the name is only listed alphabetically this could easily be overlooked. 

There are further women’s names from WW2 also as attached. 

The memorial was introduced to the public as a ‘Wall of Remembrance’, not as a War Memorial. The memorial was unveiled 21 October 1933. 

The form was planned to be widely stepped and broad paved footways, both along the entire front of the Memorial Wall and also around the base of the 5th Gloucestershire’s Memorial to a gateway in its new position.

http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/gloucester-city-rbl/photo-gallery/gloucester-cwgc-and-other-military-graves/gloucester-park-war-memorial-and-wall-of-remembrance

Remembrance Garden

Additionally, a sunken rock garden was to be included in the final form.  The memorial garden was given over to be maintained as part of Gloucester Park in the 1980s and the original form changed.  It is not for any specific conflict although a rose garden was dedicated to the Fallen by the Gloucester BSA in 1974.

The Remembrance Garden has 4 memorial benches and in its centre a poem by the War Poet and Composer Ivor Gurney, photos in here http://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/gloucester-city-rbl/photo-gallery/gloucester-cwgc-and-other-military-graves/gloucester-park-remembrance-garden

Bench 1: Presented by the Burma Star Association Gloucester branch on 15th August 2005.

Bench 2: Donated by the Gloster Veterans Club on 3rd September 2016

Bench 3: Gloucester branch British Korean Veterans Association 15th August 2005

Bench 4: Kindly donated by the Royal British Legion Gloucester City Branch

Poem by Ivor Gurney:

The Songs I Had

The songs I had are withered
Or vanished clean,
Yet there are bright tracks
Where I have been,

And there grow flowers
For other's delight.
Think well, O singer,
Soon comes night.

Some more history of Ivor Gurney, a Gloucester man who served in the Gloucestershire Regiment in WW1, laid to rest in Twigworth in 1937:

http://www.kathrynshistoryblog.com/2015/08/first-world-war-tour-of-gloucester.html?m=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Gurney

References:

A.   A STUDY OF THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREAT WAR MEMORIALS IN THE COUNTY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE (1917-1933), at this link:

http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/2457/1/TAYLOR%20Robert%20merged%20thesis%20doc_Redacted%20signature%20only.pdf

B.   IWM Website

C.   Memorialsonline website

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