BALLYSILLAN PARISH CHURCH, BELFAST.

MEMORIAL WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILING

Dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Down.

Over two hundred members of St Mark’s Parish Church, Ballysillan, of whom forty-nine made the supreme sacrifice, served with the forces in the Great War, and their names are now inscribed on a memorial tablet, which, with the chancel renovation, was dedicated at the evening service in the church yesterday [Sunday, November 11, 1928] by the Lord Bishop of Down and Connor and Dromore (Right Rev. Dr. Grierson). Mrs Finlay performed the unveiling ceremony, and the service was conducted by the rector, Rev G. R. C. Olden, M.A, who read the names of the fallen.

Rev. S. Fenton, M.A., acted as chaplain to the Bishop, and Mr. Henry Seaver, C.E., hon. diocesan lay reader, carried the pastoral staff. Mr A. T. Robinson, rector’s churchwarden, and Mr S. J. Skelton, people’s churchwarden, took part in the ceremony, and the members of St Mark’s Company Church Large Brigade Cadets and Training Corps, under Captain R. N Armstrong, provided a guard of honour, through which the Ex-service men who attended the service and the clergy passed.

The memorial is of polished brass, based on red marble; while the chancel, which is the voluntary work of Mr S. McCoard and Mr W. Gregg, consisted of a series of panels, each treated distinctively, but in keeping with the design of the Mosaic floor. The panels are surmounted by a Celtic ornamental border extending behind the choir North and South, on which are finally painted in their correct heraldic colours the arms of the thirteen Irish Bishoprics.

The Lord Bishop, in the course of his sermon, commented on artistic results of the work, and congratulated the congregation on their efforts to beautify their church. Referring to the significance of Armistice Day, he said the men of Britain fought for righteousness and to them they owed everything.

The “Last Post” and “Reveille” was sounded by buglers of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, and Mr S. McCoard, L.L.C.M., conducted the choir.

Belfast News-Letter, November 12, 1928.

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