This plaque was designed and produced by staff and students of the Chelmsford School of Science and Art as a memorial to their ten fellows who gave their lives in the First World War.
The plaque was unveiled on 10th December 1923 and it was
originally mounted in the entrance to the School in the Frederick Chancellor
Building on Victoria Road South. In 2008 it was removed and following
restoration by Richard Rogers Conservation it was installed and re-dedicated here
on the 4th November 2014.
It was designed by Frank Isom and executed by his fellow
students, under the direction of the School principal, Charles Henry Baskett RE.
The centre panel is of copper and is flanked by silver strips. The County and
Borough arms are mounted below the enamel of St George and the Dragon on the
White Cliffs of Dover. Clockwise from the top right the regimental badges are interpretations
of those of the Royal Fusiliers, Royal Field Artillery, London Irish, Royal
Regiment of Artillery, Royal Flying Corps, Border Regiment, Civil Service
Rifles, and the Suffolk Regiment.
The Chelmsford School of Science and Art was a precursor of
Anglia Ruskin University. The Art School was heavily influenced by the Arts
& Crafts Movement and it produced many successful artists. Newell was a National
Competition prize-winning art student and assistant teacher and he left a
number of etchings and engravings.
The architecture course drew on both the Art School and the
Science Department and Horsnell was a nationally regarded architect, exhibiting
at the Royal Academy. Turnell and Mann were student architects and the three of
them dominated the annual pre-war prize giving ceremonies.
The Science Department offered courses in mechanical and
electrical engineering for the apprentices of the large industrial concerns in
the town, such as Hoffmann’s Manufacturing Company, Marconi Wireless Telegraph
Company, Crompton’s Arc Works, and Clarkson’s National Steam Car Company. Bainbridge,
Brown, Hodgson and F. Thompson were all engineering students.
C. Thompson, the son of the proprietor of the Essex
Chronicle, briefly attended the School to earn himself a shorthand certificate.
Unfortunately no records of Taylor can be found.
