Winchester College Publication Winchester College War Cloisters Architecture | Page 2

The Architecture of War Cloister at Winchester College
Michael Wallis
C
ompleted between 15th May 1922, when Viscount Grey of
Fallodon laid the foundation stone, and 29th May 1924, when
Arthur Duke of Connaught opened the memorial, War Cloister
stands as a tribute to the vision of the Headmaster who initiated the idea,
Montague Rendall, and of course to the 513 Wykehamists who fell during
the Great War. In size, it remains the largest private war memorial in the
United Kingdom.
To fulfil his vision and that of the Old Wykehamists who attended the
Amiens dinner on 17th November 1917, Rendall and the Governing Body
recruited an architect and sculptors of the highest calibre: Herbert Baker,
Charles Wheeler and Alfred Turner. Baker was already famous for his work
in South Africa and India, and Wheeler for war memorial sculptures the
length of England. Both would later be knighted. Wheeler would go on to
become the first sculptor to be elected as President of the Royal Academy of
Arts in 1956. Baker designed many of the great buildings of the then British
Empire. He was also appointed as one of the chief architects for the Imperial
(now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission at the end of the Great War,
including the largest War Graves Commission cemetery known as Tyne Cot,
just below the Passchendaele ridge. The cemetery acquired this name because
of the large number of Northumberland regiments which served in the area.
Alfred Turner studied at the Royal Academy and later became a member. His
work was mainly in the area of statues, reliefs and war memorials in the first
half of the twentieth century. George Kruger Grey, a Chichester born artist,
was mostly famous for designing coinage for many countries throughout the
world. He also specialised in stained glass windows. This gave him a unique
talent to carve and paint all the Arms, Emblems and Names on the walls and
roof spaces of War Cloister.
View through Angel Gate.
It was agreed to build a cloister as this complemented the already existing
Wykeham’s Cloister surrounding Fromond’s Chantry. It was also decided to
site the War Cloister on the ground of the old racquets courts and Meads wall
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