Central Park, War Memorial

This war memorial was listed Grade II in 2016 with the following description:
Gosforth War Memorial Pillar was erected in front of the new Gosforth Memorial Welfare Centre (not listed) on Church Road. These two First World War memorials formed the local community’s monument to the local servicemen who died in the First World War. The Welfare Centre was opened by Mrs CA Cochrane on 28 January 1925, whilst the pillar was unveiled as part of the ceremony by the Duke of Northumberland.
The memorial pillar cost £152, raised as part of the general War Memorial Fund in a campaign led by the Gosforth War Memorial Committee. The pillar commemorates 274 local servicemen who died in the First World War: their names are recorded on brass plaques inside the Welfare Centre. A later dedication to commemorate the town’s Second World War losses was unveiled in 1949. The memorial was moved from its original location and now stands in the centre of Gosforth Central Park on the site of the old bandstand. Raised here on a three-stepped brick base, the local authority has recently replaced these steps with stone.
Details
The memorial stands in the middle of Gosforth Central Park. Approximately 4m tall and built of red Carlisle sandstone, it takes the form of a broad octagonal pillar with a moulded capstone. The pillar stands on a large plinth, square on plan. The plinth is raised on a stepped base*. The whole is enclosed by metal railings*.
The principal dedicatory inscription, recorded on a bronze plaque fixed to the front face of the plinth, reads THIS COLUMN AND ADJACENT BUILDING/ WERE ERECTED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION/ TO THE MEMORY OF THE MEN OF GOSFORTH/ WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR/ 1914 – 1918/ THEIR NAMES ARE INSCRIBED ON A TABLET/ IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE BUILDING.
The later bronze plaque fixed to the rear of the plinth reads THE HALL TO THE WEST OF THIS STONE/ ERECTED WITH PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION/ WAS DEDICATED ON REMEMBRANCE DAY/ THE 6TH NOVEMBER 1949/ AS A MEMORIAL/ TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ WHILST SERVING IN H.M. FORCES/ AND THE MERCHANT NAVY/ IN THE 1939-1945 WAR.