The congregation of Great St Marys chose to commemorate their war dead in a
stained glass window in the St Andrew’s Chapel and a tablet on the north wall of
the nave. The stained glass window was built by Powell and Sons and installed at
the same time as a memorial window to Archdeacon Cunningham who was a
Curate and Vicar at the church as well as being a Fellow of Trinity College and a
Fellow of the British Academy
The war memorial panels show the Patron Saints of the British Isles and panels
depicting Rheims, Egypt, Mesopotamia and Gallipoli. These are places where
Great St Marys men fought and died. 2nd Lieutenant Christopher Armstrong, son
of a Cambridge brewer and Cambridge University Athletics Blue fought at
Gallipoli, was deployed to Egypt to guard the Suez Canal zone and died during a
campaign to relieve the garrison at Kut el Amara in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, in
April 1916.
Captain J.M. Cunningham 7th Suffolk Regiment and only son of Archdeacon
Cunningham was killed in March 1918.
The chapel also contains a lectern, which was donated from the chapel of No55
Field Hospital in France by its commanding officer Lt/Colonel Roderick, later
churchwarden at Great St Mary. The lectern was originally accompanied by the
military colours ( flags ) of the Hospital. The lectern has an inscription saying
that it was constructed by Rifleman A.E. Ashton of the 4th Battalion of The Rifle
Brigade who was a soldier at the hospital between 1915 and 1916 having been
shot in the chest during the Battle of Frezenberg Ridge near Ypres in May 1915.
Rifleman Ashton went on to become a Sergeant in The Royal Sussex Regiment
and was killed on the 8th November 1918.
On the first pillar on the east side of the nave is a brass plate commemorating
Lieutenant Anchitel Edward Fletcher Boughey of The Rifle Brigade, youngest son
of Rev A.F Boughey former Vicar of Great St Mary. Lieutenant Boughey was killed
on active service when his ship was torpedoed whilst crossing the Irish Sea in
October 1918.
The memorial tablet at the north end of the church was constructed and installed
by Mr Northfield of Cambridge in 1921. It contains the names of 23 men of Great
St Marys who died in the First World War and 6 names of men who died during
the Second World War.
Photo of Christopher Armstrong by permission of Ruth Anderson
Photo of James Cunningham by permission of Mr Hugh Pattenden