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In 1916, the British Government realised that, following the dreadful trench warfare into which the war had descended and the horrendous loss of life, it was necessary to provide some form of official recognition of the price paid by the fallen and their families.
They came up with the idea of a memorial, which would be distributed to the next-of-kin of those who had died and the public were informed of this decision via the “Times” newspaper, of Tuesday, 7th November 1916; furthermore this memorial would be paid for by the Government.
By late 1917, the decision had been made that this memorial would take the form of a bronze plaque and a competition for the design was initiated.
The plaque was to be made of bronze, of an area of not less than 18 square inches and could be circular (4 ¾” in diameter), square (4 1/2 “), or a rectangle (5” x 3” or 5” x 3 ½”). There should be an inscription, which must form part of the design and which had already been decided upon, “He (or She) Died For Freedom And Honour”. Space was to be allowed for the deceased’s name, in raised lettering.
The Times, in their edition of Wednesday, 20th March, 1918, printed the results; an Edward Carter Preston (born in Liverpool in 1885, an English artist, sculptor, and medallist) had won the first prize and it was his design that would be used for the memorial plaque.
The winning design, a plaque cast in bronze and 4 ¾” in diameter, shows Britannia, standing and facing to the right with her left arm extended and her left hand holding a laurel wreath. Her right arm and hand holds a trident close to her right side.
At her feet is a lion while, to represent Britain’s sea-power, up near her face is a dolphin with another close behind her, on the left hand side of the plaque. The deceased’s name was to appear in the rectangle to the right Britannia. To the right of the lion’s leading leg is the inscription “ECP”, which are the initials of the designer.
Production of the first plaques began in December 1918, at a small factory in Acton, West London, but their contract, for some reason, was terminated and production moved to Woolwich Arsenal, where, to differentiate between their plaques and those from Acton, the letters “WA” were stamped on the reverse side.
Another method of differentiating between the two production lines was that each plaque carried a number down by the lion’s legs – if this number is to the left of the back leg it would have been made at Acton and there will be no marking on the reverse but, if the number is between the back legs, then it was made at Woolwich Arsenal and carries the letters “WA”.
The memorial plaque, eventually, was given another name by soldiers, “Dead Man’s Penny”, because of the likeness to that coin, at the time and the reason for it.
Included with the plaque, was a scroll, produced on parchment, headed by the Royal Coat of Arms, and about 10 ½” x 6 ½”.
It said, “'He whom this scroll commemorates was numbered among those who, at the call of King and Country, left all that was dear to them, endured hardness, faced danger, and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of duty and self-sacrifice, giving up their own lives that others may live in freedom. Let those who come after see to it that his name be not forgotten.”
