Honouring remembrance

In his Mercury My Tasmania column, Leo Schofield touched on an important point – the memorials to our soldiers killed in World War One. “All over this country, in cities and tiny country towns, stand memorial plaques, statues and obelisks engraved with the litany of dead,” he wrote.

Many such memorials take the form of remembrance Roll of Honour boards inscribed with soldiers’ names, seen in churches around Tasmania. But what happens to these honour rolls when a church is closed, deconsecrated and the building sold to a private developer? Does any future protection attach to the rolls and other war memorials a church might have? I ask this because of the uncertain future faced by heritage St John’s Anglican Church at Franklin, with its own Roll of Honour

Does the RSL have a position on this protection issue?

It was something that was canvassed when the Tasmanian Anglican leadership closed and deconsecrated Holy Trinity Church in North Hobart in late 2007 (and then sold the historic building to the Greek Orthodox faith).

The main concern then was what would happen to protect the beautiful triptych stained glass war memorial window from 1922 designed by Lucien Dechaineux, one of, if not the most striking of church war memorial windows in Australia. It was paid for from donations by relatives and others, and a bishop dedicated it in perpetuity to honour the war dead.

So with the “in perpetuity” aspect in mind, someone with close links to Holy Trinity put the question of protection to a Melbourne Queen’s Counsel. His legal view was the effect of deconsecration removed the sacred character from the church (and thus its various memorials).

The closure of Holy Trinity was such a public issue at the time that it resulted in the Hobart City Council funding a detailed conservation management plan for the church, the plan stating that the church windows had to be properly conserved and maintained. That report was in late 2008 and one wonders what has happened since.

Well, the window is still there in its impressive setting – and Holy Trinity also has a Roll of Honour board to its 101 parishioners killed in the war. No doubt today’s relatives would pray that long may these memorials remain in situ.