Schools
Memorial unveiling.
A War Memorial for a modern school Old Cranleighan Nicholas Dimbleby’s sculpture Leaving ‘War is strange. Death, destruction, cruelty, confusion, loss of familiar signposts are all its elements. Yet, it does, too, conjure other things to be remembered – comradeship, the fellowship of a tank crew, loyalty, small incidents which renew one’s faith in humanity. Those elements are collectively called peace.’ Words of former Cranleigh Headmaster Marc van Hasselt (1970-1984), one of the few surviving D-Day veterans, who recently received the Légion d’Honneur from the French government for his part in the landings. A poignant new War Memorial by leading British sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby was unveiled at Cranleigh School on 1st July 2016, exactly 100 years after the devastation of the Battle of the Somme. At the heart of the Memorial is a threemetre high sculpture, in bronze and Bath stone, depicting a naked boy attempting to stride ahead into his future, but who finds himself restrained by what appears to be the ruin of a conventional stone Memorial, ravaged by further war. Entitled Leaving, the dramatic sculpture is sited in an elevated position looking out across the Surrey Hills and
surrounded by sweeping glass panels engraved with the names of 374 former pupils who have fallen in battle during the School’s 150-year history. For the School, which opened its doors to the first pupils in 1865, commissioning a new war memorial has been a challenging and at times emotional process. From the outset there was a wish to create something that would commemorate history and the service of the fallen, whilst simultaneously making the memorial relevant to a generation of pupils that thinks in terms of globalisation and peacekeeping. Current international events and the anniversary of key World War One dates combined to make the process especially thoughtprovoking. It was always the school’s intention to work with an artist to create such a modern memorial. Luckily Cranleigh can count one of the country’s foremost figurative sculptors among its alumni. Nicholas Dimbleby (1 North, 1964), the creator of the well-known Whistler on the Southbank, was happily free to undertake the commission. He launched into research with infectious energy, convening meetings with pupils as well as senior staff and Old Cranleighans to get to the heart of the
Autumn 2016
*CCR Vol53 no3 Autumn 2016.indd 5
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