Winged Warrior Angel War Memorial Receives Grade II Listing

Published on: 3 Dec, 2016
Updated on: 6 Dec, 2016

By Mary Alexander

The striking memorial to Major Geoffrey Parnell in Guildford’s Holy Trinity Churchyard has been Grade II listed by Heritage England (once English Heritage) as part of its programme of listing war memorials.

The memorial to Major Geoffrey Parnell in Holy Trinity Churchyard.

It shows a winged warrior angel in bronze on a white stone plinth with an inscription commemorating Major Parnell and his men who died on July 15, 1916 during the battle of the Somme.

Major Parnell had rallied his men in a new attack on a German position near High Wood but was almost immediately shot and killed. He was buried at Flat Iron Copse Cemetery.

The memorial has been given Grade II listing by Heritage England.

His older sister Edith Farmiloe was an artist and she made the statuette. It is in a very different style from her charming book illustrations and is still a powerful testimony to the grief of Edith, and all other families and friends of the men killed in the Great War.

This is one of the reasons why it was listed, because it shows the tragic personal and public impact of the war.

It takes the form of winged warrior angel in bronze on a white stone plinth.

The other main reasons are that it is of artistic interest, and was erected by the local stonemasons Moons (whose works was by the town bridge), and because of its setting within the churchyard.

The  Surrey Times of March 25, 1922 reported that it was being erected in the church, but in fact it was put in the churchyard, possibly for lack of space. Sadly, Edith Farmiloe had died in 1921.

Geoffrey Parnell was born in 1882 in County Cork where his officer father was stationed with the Royal Engineers. He joined the Queen’s Regiment in 1903, and in 1912 was a captain with the 5th Battalion at Stoughton Barracks.

He was well known in Guildford. The Queen’s Regimental chapel is in Holy Trinity, which is why the memorial is here.

A poppy and some coins have been placed on the memorial.

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