
Our grateful thanks to Mr. R. Iden for the work he carried out in 1992-3 compiling the Memorial Inscriptions in St. Wilfrid’s Church. The church drawing and information above are based on his work and updated where necessary.
1. Foundation stone in exterior wall at north-west corner of chancel
This church is erected / To the Honour and Glory of /
Almighty God /And is dedicated to St. Wilfrid /
This stone July 22nd / was laid on A.D.1908 by / The Right Revd Lord Bishop of Chichester / Revd. REGINALD JAMES LEA, Vicar, / ALFRED THORBY LONG, J.P., HENRY LAYTON STAFFURTH / Churchwardens / G.H. FELLOWES PRYNNE: J. JARVIS & Sons: / Architect. Builders.
4. Wood tablet bearing blue lettering, on north wall of north aisle
By Order in Council, dated the 25th of May 1971, this Church of Saint Wilfrid / was declared the Parish Church of Bognor in succession to that dedicated to Saint John, / formerly in London Road. / To perpetuate the memory of the many donors and friends of that Church this / tablet is erected recording the memorial tablets and windows which were therein.
TABLETS
EDWARD MILLER, M.A., Perpetual Curate and first Vicar, died 1877. / JOHN FRANCIS SCOBELL, Lieutenant 1st Leinster Regiment, / died on active service 1901, / FLORENCE BETTY DAVIES, died 1915 aged 12 years. / JOHN HAVILAND, Churchwarden and Manager of Nyewood School, / died 1916, and ALICE HAVILAND, his wife, died 1933. / JOHN ALAN MILES STOREY, Server, chorister and deputy organist, / died 1954, aged 16 years. / FREDERICK JOHN SEYMOUR, chorister for 35 years, died 1954. / DORA ANNIE CLARKSON, died 1956. / HORACE ARNOLD DICK, Master Mariner, died 1964. /
WINDOWS
JOHN WREFORD, Curate, died 1884. / CAROLINE FULLAGER, died 1891. /THOMAS ROBINSON, died 1891. / ARTHUR SMITH, died 1897, and his children. / Reverend ROBERT BISCOE TRITTON, M.A., Vicar 1878-1891, died 1898. / CAROLINE, his wife, and ELIZABETH. their daughter, also died 1898. / ALFRED THORBY LONG, Churchwarden. / MERVYN KEATS SANDYS, Captain, died 1914. / Reverend PRIESTLEY, Vicar, 1913-1915. / The Rt. Rev. WALTER FARRAR, sometime Bishop Antigua and British Honduras, / Vicar of this Parish, 1915-1916. / WALTER CYRIL WARD, died 1924 and his wife, EMILY MARY JANE, / died 1930. This window has been removed to the chapel of the / Norland Nursery Training College, Hungerford, Berks. / GWENDOLINE CECILIA AYRES, died 1940 / This window has been removed to the Michael Ayres School
5 Brass plaque on north wall of north transept:
In Memory of JAMES ALLEN / FREEBORN HOWELL / Born 24 March 1887 / Formerly pupil at the Royal / Naval Academy, Bognor ; who / lost his life 5 November 1904 / when the ship “Brier Holme, on / which he was apprenticed, went / down off Tasmania. This tablet / is erected by his schoolfellows / July 1905. / Eric Gill, Sculptor, Artist and Type-Face designer and his brother MacDonald, cartographer and also a pupil of the Royal Naval Academy, designed the plaque.
We are hugely indebted to Caroline Walker, great-niece of MacDonald and Eric Gill (her grandfather was their brother Evan) who is undertaking research on Macdonald Gill; her research on Macdonald Gill’s ledgers now gives us the information on when the plaque was created and and also reveals that the plaque below for Gabbet was also by Macdonald Gill.
6. Brass plaque on north wall, just inside the Lady Chapel
(above No.7)
To the greater glory of God / and in dear memory of / EDMOND POOLE GABBETT / has this tablet been erected / by ALICIA his wife / Born 30 August 1884 he died 22 I September 1914 soon after his ship / HM.S. “Cressy’ had been sunk in the / Great War against the Germans / and whilst he, refusing safety, was / endeavouring to save the life of a friend / May his soul rest in peace.
9. Wooden Stall set into s. wall of Lady Chapel
Inscription:
To the Memory of the Old Boys of Holyrood School /who laid down their lives in the Great War 1914-1918. / Beati pro patria mortui.
G.H. BAILEY
C. BRYAN
L.S. BOSTOCK
CHAPUT
D. CUTBUSH
B.J. DUNLOP
E.P. GABBETT
D. HAMMONDS
C.W. HAYLEY
V. HOOK
J.L. MATHEWS
EC. MORGAN
CL OVINGTON
N FELLOWES PRYNNE
B.S. RAYMOND
V.G. SCHREIBER
W.E. SCHREIBER
E.W. SQUIRE
St.J. STOCKER
J.I. WATSON
F.G. WATSON
EW. WESTMACOTT
RI. WESTMACOTT
J.B.W. WOLSTENHOLME
17. Clergy of Bognor
Large wood tablet on south wall of south aisle
PERPETUAL CURATES
1822 FREDK. GAUNTLETT
1834 CHARLES LANE
1838 EDWARD MILLER
VICARS
1873 EDWARD MILLER
1878 ROBERT B. TRON
1893 JOHN F. SCOBELL
1897 WILLIAM B. BLADON
1905 REGINALD J. LEA
1913 JOHN J. PRIESTLEY
1915 WALTER FARRAR (Bishop)
1917 HENRY J. CLAYTON
1923 KENNETH CLARKE
1936 LEWIS E. MEREDITH
1947 VERNON K. LIPPIETT
1952 WILLIAM G. SINCLAIR SNOW
1976 HAROLD EMBLETON
1986 JOHN H. NICHOLL
1998 ROGER P. CALDER
2007 ANDREW WADSWORTH