The Rainham War Memorial Clocktower

In the core of Rainham Village, the Rainham War Memorial clock tower stands prominently between Broadway and Upminster Road, in front of Saint Helen and Saint Giles, the parish church of Rainham. Constructed of red Belgian brick with Portland stone dressings and cast stone ornamentation, the hexagonal short tower features clock faces on three of its sides. Narrow pilasters decorate the angles of the clock tower, and the top features a parapet with balustrade. Iron railings surround the memorial, where the names of the war dead are inscribed on a sloping base.

The memorial was built in 1920 by a Mr. Vinton and was unveiled on 7 November 1920 by Colonel Sir Francis Henry Douglas Charlton Whitmore, who served as Lord Lieutenant of Essex from 1936 to 1958. It was added to the National Heritage List for England in 2002 as a Grade II listed structure. The memorial commemorates soldiers killed in both World Wars as well as civilian casualties of World War II.

One of the soldiers represented on the monument is Second Lieutenant Ralph Luxmore Curtis, a native of Rainham who was a World War I flying ace credited with fifteen aerial victories. At nineteen years old, he engaged in aerial combat with Hermann Göring, commander of Jasta 27 and future head of the Luftwaffe. Each year on 11 November, residents of Rainham pay their respects by placing crosses and fresh poppy wreaths adjacent to the monument.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons