Biography

Inside nearly all the places of worship in Launceston and surrounding districts, there have been placed honour boards, plaques, windows and other such things to commemorate those members of each congregation who fought and who in the several wars in which our countrymen have taken part. 

In St. John's, there are several war memorial objects and plaques, and links to more details on those items can be followed below. They include a memorial plaque to fallen soldiers of World War I, a book desk (book stand) which is an Anzac memorial gift, the carillon, which is a peace thanksgiving installed after World War 2, and the Great War Honour Roll which has a troubled history, being put together to replace a Great War Honour Board which was somehow lost or destroyed in the renovations of the early 1980s.

There are also individual memorials for St. John's people who died in the conflicts in which Australia served.

However, there is one war memorial that is worthy of separate mention for its artistic importance. It is a beautiful interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' in sectile mosaic placed as a reredos in St. John's Church in 1921.

It is fitted to a curved template that fits snugly to the curved wall of the sanctuary. A plaque was also erected in the church listing the names of the twenty-four men who died. The inscription reads:
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE MEN FROM THIS PARISH WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918.
THE REREDOS IN THIS CHURCH HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE PARISHIONERS.
BALDERSON C. BALDSTRUP G.H. BECK A.K. COLLINS V. COOKE R. CRAWFORD N. O'DOUGHARTY F.C. EVANS R.F. ECCLES A.E. GOOD F. GATENBY L. HANCOCK P.H. HARRISON R. FRITH A.G. FRITH R. KIDDLE R. DE LITTLE M.G. POWELL G. ROBSON T.K.M. TAYLOR B.L.
PRITCHARD A. TEVELEIN E.L. TOLSON G. WESTBROOK V.G.

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