Martyrs

of the lowliness of humanity. After Gill’s death the work was completed by his assistant, Laurie Cribb, but it remained in Gill’s studio until after the War.

It was when the altarpiece was finally installed in the Cathedral in 1946 that the storm broke. Cardinal Griffin had become Archbishop of Westminster in succession to Hinsley in 1943. He was given a private viewing of the altarpiece, saw the monkey and ordered it immediately removed as inappropriate in a crucifixion scene, but the public response to the removal was overwhelmingly hostile. Meanwhile, decoration of the Chapel continued. Shattock designed a surround for Gill’s altarpiece and this was installed, together with the marble cladding, in 1947-49. Names of Catholic servicemen who had been killed in the Second World War were added to the lists below the windows, a list which also now includes Catholics who died in the Korean War.

In 1948 a memorial to the dead of the Royal Army Service Corps was installed on the west wall and in 1952 a mosaic in honour of the fallen members of the Royal Army Medical Corps, designed by Michael Leigh, appeared beside the entrance to the Chapel. The most recent memorial, installed to the left of the altar in 1965, commemorates the 500,000 members of the Polish armed forces who died fighting for freedom alongside British and Commonwealth forces from 1939-45. Also designed for this Chapel by Nick Allen was a carved rosewood chair and matching prie-dieu, used by

Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II when she attended Vespers at the Cathedral in 1995. Incorporated in the design are the cross of St George and the rose of England.

It is natural to think of St George’s Chapel as a memorial to Englishmen who died as martyrs for their faith and those killed serving their country in time of war; certainly that is one theme of the Chapel. But men from many countries are commemorated here. In addition, as Eric Gill was at pains to point out in the year of his own death, the altarpiece shows the living Christ reigning triumphantly as King and Priest – the Christ not of the Crucifixion, but of the Resurrection. On a similar theme, Michael Leigh’s mosaic at the entrance portrays Christ as healer and divine physician and is accompanied by the words ‘Behold, I will make all things new’. As to St George, he is revered not only in England, but in countries, regions and cities throughout the world as patron saint, soldier-martyr, protector of the vulnerable, and healer of the sick and insane. The message of St George’s Chapel is not just one of nationalism, but of self-sacrifice and compassion, of renewal and rebirth.