An investigation of, and response to
The
Dr Jill Fernie-Clarke
& Nicholas Kowalski
Supported by Arts Council
Imaginative Reconstruction: From
Theory to Practice
Memorial Sculptures at The
Comrades of the Great War Club,
Portal A site specific installation by Nicholas Kowalski
.
Introduction to
The project used primary sources at The
Comrades Club, archive material, discussions and observations of the
contemporary context the research was synthesised into a written paper (by Jill
Fernie-Clarke) used by Nick Kowalski to underpin the development of the art
work he produced and exhibited for the arts festival.
Both the visual and written work was
presented at the Blackpool Vistas arts festival and symposium which took place
on April 1st 2009 and looked at how art can change perceptions of
place. It was held in central
This project
was designed to raise awareness of The Comrades Club and instigate changes in the
way
Feedback from the attendees at the symposium and from
members of the club supports this. The feedback is both anecdotal and written,
the attendees were asked to write down words they associated with Blackpool-
these were compared to words collected a week earlier from people elsewhere
in Lancashire the words collected at the club were generally more positive
about Blackpool.
As anticipated the visual outcomes took the form of an
installation that was site specific in nature be based on research into the
past and present of The Comrades Club. The research looked at the rich untapped
history and associated visual culture of the Club, and the visual work responded
to this and to the way in which the Club operates physically and metaphorically
on several levels.
Nick Kowalski, the artist who produced the visual work,
is based in Orb artists’ studios on the first floor. As the son of a Polish
refugee airman who served in WW2 who settled in Blackpool after the war, he
has a longstanding connection with the Club is programme leader for the BA
Hons in Fine Art at the local College and in the course of the project worked
with students, members of Orb Artists Collective, The Comrades and children
from St Theresas School, Cleveleys to produce work that was exhibited at the
club as part of this project. Working collaboratively we were able to strengthen
the synthesis between theory and practice in our work and the archive material
I found and used was incorporated into the visual outcomes.
Through focusing on the Club as the subject of the work,
we were able to do more to bring in the local community, i.e. those living in
central
For 09 we continued to engage the existing Blackpool
Vistas audience, whilst expanding the local audience and developing an audience
for the work outside of Blackpool in particular the rest of
Imaginative Reconstruction: From Theory to
Practice
Memorial Sculptures at The
Comrades of the Great War Club,
Dr Jill Fernie-Clarke
Blackpool Vistas
began in March 2005 when I presented a paper at the Landscape and Environment
symposium held by
The Blackpool
Vistas project seeks to influence perceptions of
The Comrades Club has
therefore been used as a first ‘case study’ in the development of my ‘place
marketing’ method. The Club was chosen because it houses a collection of
pictures, photographs, prints and memorabilia most of which is displayed on its
walls. The Comrades Club collection does not have a curator and is specific to
the place and the members who have used it, and is therefore unique. In this
respect it offers a useful counterpoint to the ubiquitous chain-stores (found
in
Distinctiveness is
simply that which makes one place distinct from another, it relies upon a place
having ‘features’ which make it different, bearing this in mind it is
interesting to note the recent consternation and objections to the Tithebarn shopping
centre development in Preston reported in the Lancashire Evening Post (5th
Feb 09). The objections made by people in Blackpool to the
As I pointed out in the paper I delivered
last year, I concur with Kavaratzis Mihalis’s statement that ‘cultural content is often
the only asset that is inherently distinctive and is a vehicle for local
identity’ (see
www.blackpoolvistas.com).
The Comrades Club in
The overall purpose of the project was
therefore to highlight and celebrate the distinctiveness of this place (i.e.
The Comrades Club). In order to do this I have looked at archives and primary
sources and subsequently there has been both a written and visual analysis of
the findings.
A preliminary visit took place on the 17th
December ’08 when I photographed the Club. The first primary source I
encountered was the well kept exterior of the building itself. The flag pole,
the sign above the entrance and the notices in the windows indicate the nature
and social function of the Club. The Union Jack is flying outside and is part
of the signage above the door including the word ‘Comrades’, both demonstrate
the Club’s military origins.
A second visit took place on the 30th
January 2009 to look at the archives and visual material
During this visit I decided to focus my
research upon the two memorials at the doorway firstly, because I wanted to begin
with some of the earliest examples of the ‘art work’ in the Club. Starting with
the oldest work would mean starting at the beginning of the ‘story’ of the
Comrades, and I suspected that studying these items would help to uncover
details about the origins the Club and reveal something about the way in which
it has come to be as it is today.
Secondly, the war memorial sculptures were chosen
because they are positioned at the entrance and currently ‘set the scene’ as
members and guests enter, these things dictate the tone of the premises and
signify something about the Club and its origins.
The purpose of looking at the archives on the
30th January was therefore to discover more about the foundation of
the Club and the memorial sculptures currently on display in the foyer.
The first entry in the records of the minutes
of meetings at the Comrades Club was made on October 10th 1917 and
the minutes of a meeting on Mon July 1st 1918 7.30pm state that the
Branch had registered under the War Charities Act of 1916.
There was a nationwide network of ‘Comrades
of the Great War’ with the head office being at 8 Grosvenor Crescent London SW1, other local Clubs were the
Poulton and Preston branches with whom the Blackpool Comrades competed at
football and boxing (13/1/20).
A newspaper report in the Blackpool Herald on
the 3rd May 1918 (kept with the Minutes) reports a public meeting that
was held to scotch rumours about the reasons for the Club; at this meeting the
purpose of the Comrades Club was clearly stated:
The main object
of the Comrades was to keep alive the spirit of comradeship which was born of
the stress of this Great War. If we had learnt to appreciate anything, we had
learned to appreciate our fellow-man of any rank. We had the employer and the
labouring man- rotten expressions, but they had to be used- fighting shoulder
to shoulder, and in many cases the employed man was an officer over his
employed because in the rough and tumble of war he had proved himself the
better man. We wanted to prevent a recurrence of the old misunderstanding
between employer and employed, to make impossible that class warfare into which
we nearly drifted before August 4th 1914. Comradeship was the thing
to do it.
This statement demonstrates how the
experience of war had a levelling and therefore political impact upon the men
involved. Thus, on their return home, they were inspired to mobilise as
Comrades of the Great War’ in order to maintain the positive spirit of
comradeship.
Curiosity about the nature of the Comrades of
the Great War Clubs was expressed in parliament in the same month as the
HC Deb 30 May
1918 vol 106 c966
Mr. HOGGE asked the Prime Minister by
whose permission leaflets advertising the Ealing comrades day were dropped
from Army aeroplanes on 16th May?
The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for AIR (Major Baird) The permission
referred to was given by a responsible Air Force officer. I would add that
by a decision of the Air Council which had been arrived at before the date
mentioned in the question but had not then been promulgated, the use of aeroplanes
for the purpose of flying exhibitions or the dropping of leaflets has been
prohibited.
Mr. HOGGE Could the hon. Gentleman explain
why the Air Service, after repeated assurances by the Prime Minister and the
Leader of the House that they have nothing to do with the Comrades of the
Great War, gave permission for propaganda for the purpose of this organisation
to be dropped from national aeroplanes?
Major BAIRD I have seen the leaflet, and
I can imagine that the commanding officer would look upon it simply as a charitable
organisation to help men who had been wounded, and it would be quite a natural
thing that he would give it his help without previous instructions.
Mr. HOGGE Does the hon. and gallant Gentleman
agree that the Comrades of the Great War are a charitable organisation?
Major BAIRD I am not prepared to argue
that point—I do not think it arises —but I am quite sure that the leaflet
would give that impression to the officer commanding.
Mr. G. TERRELL Is not this question raised
as a matter of spite and jealousy?
Mr. HOGGE No!
The tone of Major Baird towards his former
comrades is non-committal there is neither support nor disapproval though it
appears that the Prime Minster stated that the government had no involvement
with the network of Clubs being founded across the country which is further
testament to the commitment of the ex-servicemen themselves and evidence of the
grass roots origins of the Clubs.
The minutes of the Blackpool Comrades’ meetings
document the spirit of Comradeship expressed at the meeting of the 3rd
May 1918. This can be seen in the acts of charity that were extended to fellow
comrades and their orphans (minutes16/12/19); concern and offers of help to
their widows (minutes 25/11/19); occasions when Comrades were supported by
small loans; and when references were obtained from the Club enabling
individuals to gain employment.
At the outset there appear to have been three
types of meeting- weekly Committee Meetings, Monthly General Meetings that were
held in the Free Library on
Today there are fortnightly Committee
meetings and twice yearly Annual General Meetings.
The early minutes reveal that from the outset
the need for Club premises was pressing and on March 4th, 1919 the
minutes tell us that premises at
On June 3rd,
1919 the current premises on
At a Committee Meeting
held on Tues Sept 30th 1919 at 7.30pm there was a discussion of
alterations to the club premises at
…lower
portion of the premises to make the lounge & bar and billiard room,
Secretary’s Office and Committee Room with two rooms to spare for what ever use
we might care to make of them.”
Today there is still a
lounge, bar and billiard room on the lower floor as is the Secretary’s Office
which is shared with the Sub-mariners.
The wider context in
which these decisions were being made is apparent as the minutes of the same
meeting make reference to the national railway strike. It was resolved that the
Executive committee of the Blackpool Branch of the Comrades of the Great War:
…offer all the
resources of the association to the Government in carrying out any work of
National Importance during the present crisis.
This is interesting in the
light of the earlier evidence of the Government’s general lack of support for
Comrades Clubs.
This was followed up at
the General Meeting of October 7th 1919 held at 8pm, when offering
the services of the Comrades to the authorities it was discussed in terms of:
…helping in the
transportation of food and other urgent work also assisting in maintaining law
and order during the present emergency…
The story of the memorial plaque starts at
this same meeting when the subject of holding a Comrades Memorial Service was
brought before members and met with the meeting’s approval.
At the Committee Meeting
held on Tues Oct 14th 1919 at 7.30pm
It was resolved that:
…on consideration
this meeting has come to the conclusions that it is too late to carry a
Comrades Memorial Service to a successful ____ and recommend as an alternative
to have a memorial tablet to be placed somewhere about the Club premises.
At the Committee Meeting
held on Tues Oct 21st 1919 at 7.30pm
…The subject of
the memorial tablet was brought before the meeting, Mr N Lyon has brought with
him a suggested design. This met with the approval of the meeting and it was
decided to adopt the general idea of the design and to recommend to the General
Meeting that the matter be proceeded with.
The instigation of a memorial at local level
appears to have been in line with what was happening around the Country at this
time. The
It describes the period after the First World
War as the ‘largest public arts project this country has ever seen’ the reason
for this appears to be that ‘ due to an official refusal to allow repatriation
of the dead, millions of bereaved Britons were left with no physical focus for
their grief’. Without a doubt my family experienced this lack of focus for the
mourning of my great grandfather who served on HMS Birmingham, was wounded,
returned home and died leaving three orphans under ten years of age. The family
were unable to afford a headstone for his grave, which the children were
subsequently unable to find, and the war memorial displaying his name became
the focus for their grief.
The subjects of social
strife and the memorial plaque continued to be raised at the same meetings and
give some useful insights into the role that the Comrades had assumed in
civilian life.
At a General Meeting held
on Oct 28th 1919 at 8pm
The Secretary reported having corresponded
with the acting Chief Constable who had:
…asked if we
could supply him with a list of names and addresses of members who were willing
to volunteer to act as Special Constables in the Citizen Guard to help maintain
law and order in the case of emergency. The chairman asked those who were
willing to volunteer to place their names on the paper which would be sent
round.
…The subject of
having a memorial plaque…The general idea of the subject met with the unanimous
approval of the meeting, and it was recommended that it be left in the hands of
the executive to carry out. The chairman stated that he thought the cost of the
memorial should not come out of the funds of the branch, but that it would be
more appropriate if members subscribed for it themselves and suggested a levy
of 1 (shilling)1/- per head. This also met with the approval of the meeting.
Although on the 13th April 1920:
the Chairman
spoke about the memorial plaque
and the slow manner in which members were coming up with their subscriptions”.
Sam Lyon, who presented an idea for the
appearance of the memorial, appears to have been active in contributing to the
club as he also presented a clock to the Club, the Committee Meeting held Tues
Nov 4th 1919 at 7.30pm
… was unanimous
in passing a vote of thanks to Mr Sam Lyon jnr for his generosity in presenting
to us such a splendid clock.
On my third visit to the Club I looked for,
and asked members about the clock. There was some discussion of the possibility
that it might be the recently restored ‘Guinness’ clock in the billiard room.
Other early contributions included a silver
cup. On November 11th 1919 It was reported that Mr W.H.Onnay
had promised to
present to the branch to commemorate the opening of the Club a silver cup
valued £25 for a Billiards Handicap for Comrades only.
I looked at the cups on display in the club
and was unable to be certain if the original cup was still there though there
are a wealth of trophies, for billiards, dominoes and bowling.
In the early days easy chairs were donated by
Mr Read of
The memorial plaque, currently on display in
the foyer, was further discussed and approved of at the Committee and General
Meetings on the 2nd December 1919.
In January of 1920 the Comrades began
discussing an opening ceremony for their new premises on
On Tuesday April 20th 1920 the
minutes reveal that the Sculptor of the memorial plaque, M.J.Millard had
written to the Club
He wished to know
what ‘Statement of Presentation’ and ‘Inscription’ we would like to have on the
plaque. The ‘Statement of Presentation’ on which the meeting were unanimously
resolved was this:-
‘This memorial
was erected by the Members of the Blackpool Branch of the Comrades of the Great
War in memory of those who made the great sacrifice 1914-1919’.
As regards the
“Inscription” the chairman stated that he had a copy of the one we agreed upon
at a meeting some time ago, and he would forward it on to Mr Millard together
with the ‘Statement of Presentation’.
As we can see, the statement appears as the
Comrades intended with minor changes- ‘great sacrifice’ is ‘supreme sacrifice’
and 1919 is changed to 1918.
The inscription reads:
Come life, come
death, we quit ourselves like men.
M.J.Millard was an established memorial
sculptor who executed a sculpture for the Macclesfield memorial (illustrated in
the IWM History of Memorialisation) which, like the
The design of the next of kin plaque was decided by a competition with Edward Carter- Preston winning:
(the Imperial War
Museum holds an original model in plaster, catalogue reference MEDP/3)
comprises the figure of Britannia, classically robed and helmeted, standing
facing right, holding a modest laurel wreath crown in her extended left hand
and supporting a trident by her right side with her right arm and hand.http://collections.iwm.org.uk
In contrast to the figure on the next of kin
plaque
Britannia stands at the far left of the
plaque in an alcove below a simple pediment and at the far right, in a similar
niche is a soldier of unspecified rank, he wears a great coat; boots; back
pack; and holds a rifle; his tin hat indicates that he is contemporary (as
these were introduced during the WW1conflict). He faces Britannia and similarly
bows his head.
Between the two figures is a wreath of laurel
leaves, a standard indicator of heroism, used since classical times. The
inscription ‘Come life, come death, we quit ourselves like men’ is
superimposed over the wreath which along with the static respectful poses of
the figures highlights the dignity of the heroism commemorated as does the
Latin inscription ‘Gloria Mortis’ that appears beneath the figures.
The medium of cast bronze, like that of the next
of kin plaque, was the standard sculptural material used by all sculptors of
public monuments at that time (this was before the era of modernists like Henry
Moore who used stone and wood).
The scale of the plaque is in keeping with
its location and the scale of the Club (I have found no indication that it has
ever been moved away from its original location).
It would appear that the plaque was nearing
completion in June 1920 as the Committee Meeting Minutes of the 22nd
June tell us that:
The Chairman
brought to the meeting a photograph of the memorial plaque as it would look
when finished. It was passed round the meeting for inspection and highly
approved of.
The plaque was finally unveiled in December
of that year as the plate now underneath it testifies:
This memorial was
unveiled by the Right Honourable The Earl of Derby KC on the occasion of his
declaring the club open on December 16th 1920.
The memorial Plaque is an example of what we
might describe today as a commissioned public art work, it was commissioned by
a group of men who wanted to erect a memorial and mark their own experiences of
war and death. It is specific to this place. The art work, like the memorial
service it replaced, was a vehicle for focusing and expressing their experiences
and grief. This appears to be true of much of the memorabilia displayed on the
walls of the club most of which is commemorative. An example of this is the
model train that bears the inscription:
Made for the
Comrades Club by Les Bloom 1998 Locomotive named after the ‘
On my third visit to The Comrades Club I
photographed some of the images in the bar and looked at the minutes of the
meetings from the 1940s in the hope of finding some information about the
commissioning of the WW2 memorial in the foyer. Unfortunately the minutes did
not yield anything about this wooden plaque and carved figure of a soldier,
however, during the visit I was shown a packet containing five medals and
memorabilia recently bequeathed to the Club by the widow of former member Frank
Stebbings. Frank had been one of WW2’s ‘Dam Busters’ and the collection
included his distinguished flying medal and a flight log, a document containing
details of all of his many missions. I was shown a photograph of him that hangs
on the wall near to a framed poem of his. These items and images offer a
personal history, unique and distinctive giving insights into a person who
lived through a significant period in history. In the context of the Comrades
Club these items are part of multiple personal histories documented by images
and items donated by
The next steps in the method I proposed last
year, and which formed the basis of the bid to Arts Council England, involved
the synthesis of the research into art work that comprised of visual responses
to the research and to the distinctiveness of the context as revealed by the
use of the archives.
Conclusion:
As the result of this research several
distinctive key themes were identified:
1 The notion of comradeship upon which this
club was founded
2 The personal significance of the memorial
sculpture displayed to the public in the foyer
3 The Club itself and its paraphernalia as a
living memorial
The visual response to the research I have
undertaken and the distinctiveness of the Club can be seen in Nick Kowalski’s
work Portal in which the idea of memory and memorial, the history of the
club, and the evocative context of the building, have been used in a site
specific installation that uses the staircase and the landing on each floor.
The art work uses quotations from the
archives and in its use of location invites the viewer to respond afresh to the
location. The art work uses the uniqueness of this place and could not be reconstructed
elsewhere.
Under Nick’s guidance The Comrades have been
involved in the production of a contemporary art work that uses imagery from
the memorial plaque and there are also responses to the Club by children from a
local school and the artists of Orb art and which are exhibited in Orb’s
studios on the first floor.
This intention of this intervention i.e. the
research and art work, was to highlight the distinctiveness of The Comrades of
the Great War Club in Blackpool, we have attempted to raise awareness of the
distinctiveness; uniqueness; authenticity; and historical value of the archives
here, including what we can see on the walls around us and to highlight the
multilayered meanings and significance of The Club. This project has just scratched
the surface, there is much more to be studied and considered and I think there
must be potential for developing work that looks in detail at these personal,
authentic and spontaneous histories, recorded visually by the people involved
here and which we hope, could contribute positively to perceptions of
With many thanks to the members of the Club
who have been helpful and hospitable.
©Dr Jill Fernie Clarke 26th March 2009.
Portal
A site specific installation for The Comrades Club,
by Nicholas Kowalski
