North Wales Heroes’ Memorial

Bangor City crest

Link to French translationNorth Wales Heroes’ Memorial

This memorial, on the opposite side of Deiniol Road from Bangor war memorial, was completed in 1923 to honour all the people from North Wales who had been killed in the First World War. The room above the archway is lined with carved wooden panels listing the names of 8,500 people from the region who died in active service. To discover details of many of the war dead, browse the list of local war memorials covered by HistoryPoints.

The project to create the memorial began in 1917, after Bangor University was given £20,000 by Anglesey-born Sir Robert Thomas, who had made a fortune in shipping. A North Wales Heroes’ Memorial Council was set up and began planning a memorial arch and new university buildings for science. Prime Minister David Lloyd George became one of the patrons of the North Wales Heroes’ Memorial Fund. University students helped with the fund-raising activities such as a concert at Penrhyn Hall in February 1918.

The memorial was formally opened by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) on 1 November 1923. He laid the first stone for the new science buildings during the same visit.

The memorial is a pastiche of a Tudor gateway. The memorial inscription above the arch refers to Gwynedd and Powys. Communities as far south as Machynlleth, Llanidloes and Montgomery are named on the panels inside.

In 2007 the memorial was restored, with the help of £1,500 from the War Memorials Trust. By then the floor of the upstairs room was unsafe and water had collected in the basement.

The memorial is normally closed to the public, but Bangor Civic Society has photographed the names on the panels and made them available on its website. To view them, click here.

With thanks to Bangor Civic Society and David Roberts, of Bangor University

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