Oxford Inscriptions: Christ Church War Memorial Garden
MY SWORD I GIVE TO HIM
THAT SHALL SUCCEED ME IN MY PILGRIMAGE.
The above inscription is on the pavement just inside the gates of Christ Church War Memorial Garden in St Aldate’s. This garden was created in 1926 to remember all those who died in the First World War. The quotation is from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. It is on the site of the eleven former houses and shops (numbered 8/9 to 18) that stretched between Christ Church's stables that lay just to the south of Tom Quad and the draper's shop at No. 19 (including the Wheatsheaf & Anchor pub at No. 15).
Christ Church set up a War Memorial Fund in the mid-1920s to commemorate the members of the college who had died in the First World War, but insufficient money was raised for any building work, and the Dean of Christ Church proposed instead a general War Memorial Garden, which opened up the south front of Christ Church.
- Imperial War Museum: Christ Church College, Oxford – WW1 Garden
- War Memorials Online: Christ Church War Memorial Garden
- Historic England: List entry 1046747 for the screen of the war memorial garden