Survey Data
Reg No
40850021
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Monument
In Use As
Monument
Date
1918 - 1922
Coordinates
210853, 366784
Date Recorded
31/10/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Wall-mounted memorial monument, erected c. 1920, comprising carved limestone surround supporting carved limestone pediment over with carved military motif (crossed rifles and flags) with Crown motif over to tympanum, and having pink granite memorial plaque listing names of local military personnel who died in World War 1. Inscription above plaque reading ‘In Proud and Grateful Commemoration’ and below plaque reading ‘Erected By Friends and Neighbours of the Gallant Men Whose Names Are Inscribed On This Memorial’. Set into rubble stone wall terminated to either side by piers (on square-plan) having pyramidal coping over. Single-storey outbuilding to the rear (north). Located to the west end of the centre of Pettigoe, and across the road to the north of the Church of Ireland church (see 40850022).
Appraisal
This fine classical-style memorial monument, of high artistic merit, commemorates local men who were killed in action during World War 1 (1914 – 1918). An inscription records that it was erected by friends and neighbours of the seventeen men listed on the central memorial tablet. Some of the names listed were members of important Donegal families including the Wray and Steward families, while the name given highest billing on the tablet, a Capt. Norman Leslie, was probably a member of the Leslie family who were the proprietors/landlords of Pettigoe at the time of erection and who occasionally resided at the terrace of houses adjacent to the east (see 40850018 to 40850020). The prominence of this name to the tablet - and the location of the monument suggests - that its creation was largely funded by the Leslies. Many of the men listed were members of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the local regimental unit of the British Army (Regimental district comprised the counties of Donegal, Derry, Tyrone and Fermanagh, with its garrison depot located at Omagh). This fine monument is an interesting feature in the streetscape of Pettigoe, adding historic and artistic interest to the west end of the centre of the town.