Otago Sculpture Trust

In Site Library - Greater Dunedin: Memorial Archway (Arthur Street) (1923)

InSite

Memorial Arch ....Otago Boys High School..........  Leslie Coombs , architect.

Shortly after the Armistice was signed in November 1918 to end the First World War the Otago High School Old Boys Society decided it was appropriate that they erect a memorial to those former pupils of the school who had died during the war. Some members of the society went further and expressed the opinion that all old boys who had served should be commemorated. It was decided that members of the society were to be canvassed to see who could come up with the best memorial design. At a special general meeting in July the next year it was agreed that the design of the former pupil, Mr L.D. Coombs, was the most suitable.

Coombs' plan was to erect a memorial arch at the school entrance on which the names of those who had died would be inscribed on brass plates. A further brass plaque with the Roll of Honour of all those who had seen military service was to be erected in the school hall. It was agreed that a letter be sent to all old boys with an illustration of the proposed arch and a list of those names that would be recorded there. It was not intended that parents of current pupils should be canvassed although any contributions to the fund would be welcome.

The Chairman of the society expressed the opinion that there would be little difficulty in raising the money and so it proved. The archway was completed by July 1923 and was formally unveiled as part of the school's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in August of that year.

Arches were a popular form of memorial for schools since they were both functional yet, as Chris McLean and Jock Phillips put it, the example of the fallen would be a daily inspiration to the young as they entered the school grounds.

The arch is made of Port Chalmers blue stone with Oamaru trim. Its Gothic stylings are in keeping with R.A. Lawson's school buildings. It is almost eight metres high at its highest point and the archway is 2.5 metres deep. The memorial brass plaques were installed inside the arch. The arch was constructed by the firm of A & T. Burt, six members of the Burt family having received at least part of their education at the school. The local firm of Faulkner installed a specially sliding gate that would open without obscuring the Roll of Honour. Across the top of the archway facing Arthur Street are the words "Lest We Forget" and, following the curve of the arch, "Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori". A further inscription inside reminds passers by that this arch was constructed by the old boys of the school in memory of their fallen comrades.

The four sculptural niches were empty at the time of the unveiling. Leslie Coombs had suggested that these should by filled with statuettes representing an infantryman, a cavalryman, a sailor and an airman. In the event, only two of the niches were ever filled. In December 1925 the two niches facing Arthur Street had bronze sculptures of infantrymen at attention installed in them.

Leslie Coombs, the architect, would go on to design the war memorials in Invercargill and Lawrence. He was also the assessor of the twenty-four proposals that were put forward for the Bridge of Remembrance in Christchurch, awarding the first prize to the company of Prouse and Gummer who were later to build the Cenotaph in Dunedin.

Richard Dingwall

22 June, 2004