Remembrance in Port Sunlight

As a home to one of the largest and most significant war memorials in the UK, Port Sunlight has a long history of remembering those who fought and lost their lives in the First and Second World War. We took a dive into Port Sunlight Museum’s collections to discover the history of Remembrance in the village.

Armistice Celebrations

At 5.45am on the 11th November 1918, the Armistice Agreement that would end the First World War was signed. Officially coming into force at 11am, all fighting on sea, land, and air ceased. In communities across Britain, and around the world, citizens shared in the celebration of peace and the promise of the future. In Port Sunlight, rejoicings began immediately. Flags were raised; workers took to the streets in jubilation; the National Anthem was sung in front of the General Offices; and whistles could be heard from ships on the River Mersey and trains on the railways. In solemn reflection, too, Thanksgiving Services gathered in the Auditorium and in Christ Church to provide an opportunity for the village to remember those who had lost their lives, and express gratitude for their great sacrifice.

“November 11th will remain a date unforgettable in the lives of all of us. Yet in the rejoicings of that day came many thoughtful moments during which the sacrifices made for the glorious victory were recalled with compassion for those who mourned the heroes who would never return. Gratitude for all devotion to duty even unto death, and words of admiration for the heroes in the field, air, and seas, in our munition factories, and in our hospitals, were often on our tongues.”

‘Victory! Triumph of Our Great Co-Partnership in Arms: Our Local Rejoicings’, Progress, Vol. 18, No. 139 (December 1918), p. 116

Port Sunlight War Memorial and Remembrance Day Ceremonies

In communities across Britain, war memorials act as the locus for Remembrance Day celebrations. Port Sunlight’s war memorial monument was publicly unveiled in an elaborate ceremony in December 1921, and has been a central figure to the village — and also the wider locality — ever since. Designed by influential sculptor William Goscombe John, the memorial was named ‘Defence of the Realm’, importing visual realism and emotive narratives into its bronze-sculpted figures of military personnel, women, and children.

On the cold morning of the 3rd December, church bells rang as processions of people moved from services in Christ Church, the Auditorium, and other local churches, to gather around the newly-installed monument. It was unveiled at midday by ex-serviceman Sergeant T. G. Eames, who had lost his sight during the First Battle of the Somme, and whose name had been drawn from a ballot at Lord Leverhulme’s suggestion.

“It is a great monument, even as the sacrifice which it commemorates was great. The emotions born of the war — the pity, kindling to terror; the nobility of men and women which the war revealed; the ardour and agony of battle — have been enregistered by the sculptor in groups of bronze and in enduring stone; and the groups cluster round a village cross which rises in austere granite, the soaring symbol of sacrifice above all the energy of war.”

‘Port Sunlight War Memorial. The Unveiling’, Progress, Vol. 22, No. 152 (January 1922), p. 15

Since its installation, Port Sunlight’s war memorial has become a central figure in the community, solidifying the modes of remembrance for generations to come. An account in Port Sunlight News outlined the events of Remembrance Day in 1964, testifying to the endurance of collective memorialisation rituals:

As well as national ceremonies, a local tradition had also begun on 12th November 1920, where Port Sunlight’s ex-servicemen met in Hulme Hall for a reunion dinner. This, itself, would become a village ritual, with an annual meeting convening on the nearest Saturday to the 11th November, extending to an additional memorial service and procession for the United Comrades’ Federation by November 1922. According to Progress, the yearly reunions acted as ‘an instrument for the expression of the Armistice sentiment of every section of village life’.

Rituals of Remembrance: Two Minutes’ Silence and the Poppy Appeal

Like Port Sunlight’s annual ex-servicemen reunions, the various national Remembrance rituals that take place year-after-year might seem immemorial, but how did they start? The first two minutes’ silence, for instance, was observed on the first anniversary of the Armistice, after an appeal from King George V.

On 7th November 1919, newspapers across Britain published a statement from the palace, in which the king called on the nation to take part in a collective silent reflection on ‘the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, … in reverent remembrance of the glorious dead’. Four days later, at 11am, Port Sunlight fell into a solemn two-minutes’ silence — the first performance of a tradition that would endure for generations to come. To announce the observation, a notice was posted by Lever Brothers’ Head Office:

“Anniversary of Armistice Day, 11th November, 1919. In order that due observance may be given to the King’s appeal for two minutes’ silence at 11 o’clock, the exact moment at which hostilities ceased under the Armistice a year ago, it has been arranged for the Office bells to ring at 11 o’clock and at minutes past that hour. As a mark of respect for those that fell in the Great War, all members of the Staff are asked to stand during this period and maintain absolute silence.”

‘Armistice Anniversary: The Two Minutes’ Silence’, Progress, Vol. 20, No. 144 (January 1920), p. 15

The wearing of poppies is another prominent ritual of Remembrance Day. The symbolic value of the poppy as an expression of remembrance can be traced back to 1915, through Canadian soldier John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Field. By 1921, Britain had followed America’s lead, through the newly-founded charity the Royal British Legion, adopting the practice of using the sale of poppies as a fundraising tool for servicemen after war. The first appeal in Port Sunlight took place in 1923, where sixty female employees from the factory and offices — who, according to Progress, ‘proved saleswomen of such charm and capacity’ — collected over £100. In that same year, ex-servicemen of the United Comrades Federation, meeting in the Girls’ Dining Hall, were refused entry to their reunion dinner if they were not wearing a poppy!

“If you buy a poppy on Remembrance Day it is not only an outward and visible sign that those who have gone can never be forgotten, but, as we have pointed out in years gone by, it is a very practical help to men who have made great sacrifices for us.”

‘Remembrance Day’, Port Sunlight News, Vol. 10, No. 20 (26th October, 1932), p. 367

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