Hindon memorial
The Hindon memorial was erected to commemorate those that lost their lives in First World War and it stood in pride of place in the centre of the High Street.
The pillar memorial included a basin below the dedicatory inscription, which looks like it would have been used for flowers, and was surmounted by a lantern. These features are now missing and the memorial has been relocated stand beside the Parish Church. These losses to the memorial and its relocation are related to a single incident.
In 1943, an American tank was passing through the town, and as it navigated the main high street it failed to accomodate the war memorial which it knocked into, causing the pillar to topple and the lantern to break. It appears that following the incident the memorial was moved to a safer location, however the lantern top was not replaced. It was after this time that the inscription referring to the Second World War was added. The whole face was re-inscribed in order to enter the new dates, which is perhaps why, had the basin survived the encounter with the tank, there is no evidence of it ever having been there: it would have been removed to allow for the extended inscription.
The inscription finishes with the quote:
“Endured hardness. Faced danger. And finally passed out of the sight of men by the path of duty and self sacrifice. Giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom”
War Memorials Archive Blog 
my brother and I were evacuated to Hindon and heard the bang when the tank hit the memorial, and we went up to see the damage , one of the crew was badly hurt. we were told that the brakes failed.
How interesting. It is great to get the context for the accident but I bet it was the highlight of your day! Brake failure would explain why they failed to avoid it. Hopefully the crew member recovered.
We have just finished some restoration work to this monument with the reinstatement of the lantern, my account of which is set out below.
http://non-modern-world.blogspot.com/
I pinched your photo, hope you dont mind.
Thanks for the update. The memorial is looking good, or at least the top half is as that is all I can see! As for our photo, you are welcome to use it but please can you acknowledge and link where it came from 🙂
Thanks, thats all acknowledged, I will post a completed photo when I take the scaffold away.
Fab! Thank you. And I look forward to seeing it in all its glory
I was three in 1944 and since 1941 had lived with my mother in a cottage just opposite the war memorial, which stood in the middle of the road between us and the village shop. The village street is quite wide at that point. I am too young to remember the bang, but I do have memories of clambering about on the pile of “rocks”, which remained where they fell for what seemed to me a long time, and made a great playground, not that there were very many of us to enjoy it. The road in those days was not busy (presumably as long as one avoided the odd tank). I remember Americans washing tanks in the river at nearby Fonthill, but very few cars, and quite a lot of horses and carts. The cottage we lived in is now part of the Lamb Inn.