Norwich’s Roll of Honour, which lists the names of more than 3,500 men from the city who died in World War I, will be officially opened at its new home of City Hall on Armistice Day.
Everyone is invited to attend the event at 10.30am on Friday 11 November, which will begin with a service at the War Memorial on St Peters Street. This will be led by The Rev'd Robert Avery from St Peter Mancroft Church and the recently conserved Roll of Honour will be blessed and dedicated by the Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, following the two-minute silence.
A further blessing of the Roll of Honour will then take place just after 11am, and shortly afterwards there will be an opportunity for the public to view it and commemorative postcards will be handed out.
For people wanting to view the Roll of Honour, after this Friday, a steward will be on duty at City Hall from 10am to 4pm, Tuesday to Friday, until Friday 9 December. After that, viewing will be on an appointment basis and to book you can visit www.norwich.gov.uk, call 0344 980 3333 or ask at City Hall reception.
When Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the Norwich War Memorial in St Peter’s Street, it was clear it would not be large enough to contain so many names. So it was decided that he design a Roll of Honour of oak panels bearing their names. The result was a unique memorial; he designed no other Rolls of Honour like it.
It was installed in the Norwich Castle Keep on 13 January 1931 and consists of an oak case with doors containing 12 double-sided hinged, and four fixed, single-sided panels painted with the names and units of those killed. However, in recent years the panels have suffered structural damage and thanks to a project involving Norwich City Council, Norfolk Museums Service and the Norwich War Memorial Trust it has been fully conserved and relocated to the foyer of City Hall.
For more information, visit www.norwich.gov.uk/rollofhonour or www.norwichrollofhonour.org.uk
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