Nottinghamshire County Council
First World War monument
Introduction
At a meeting of the County Council on 29 April 1919 it was resolved “that it be referred to the Standing Orders and General Purpose Committee to consider the preparation of a record of the War Services of members and employees of the Council and the erection of a suitable memorial to those who have lost their lives.” The memorial would be erected in the Shire Hall, then the main offices of the County Council.
Mr Harry Gill MSA, a Nottingham architect and local historian, was invited to submit a design for the memorial and he proposed a “Memorial Panel in alabaster over the spandrel of the arcade in the entrance to the Shire Hall where the clock now is.”
At a meeting on 27 July 1920 the Committee accepted Mr Gill’s final design and it was agreed to accept a tender by Messrs Robert Bridgeman and Sons of Litchfield to construct the memorial at a cost not exceeding £200. It is not known when the memorial was finally installed at the Shire Hall nor when it was unveiled.
The County Council finally closed its offices at the Shire Hall in the early 1960s when the last of the departments based there transferred to the ‘new’ County Hall in West Bridgford. The First World War memorial and a Second World War memorial were not moved from the Shire Hall. After a period of disuse the building was re-opened by the Museum of Law Trust as the Galleries of Justice.
On 11 November 2008, the chairman of the County Council, Councillor the Hon Mrs Joan Taylor, laid a wreath at the Shire Hall memorials on behalf of the County Council.