Hi Sue
Manchester Regiment Memorials
The Anglo Boer War 1899/1902
Go to this link, it lists the memorials.
I've reproduced the bit about St Ann's Square from the web site.
There are 27 memorials listed.
http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsgalleries/mom/memorials/boerwarSt Ann's Square, Manchester
Regimental South African War Memorial. The work of William Hamo Thorneycroft (1850 - 1925), it represents a soldier of the Manchester Regiment standing with bayonet fixed at the "ready" while a wounded comrade at his feet hands him a cartridge to continue the fight. The plinth represents a large rough rock, on the front face is a wreath of bay leaves. There are bronze plaques on all sides of the pedestal, three of which record the names of those who gave their lives in the War: 8 officers and 309 non-commissioned officers and men.Photograph of Boer War Memorial St Annes Square
The inscription which runs around the four sides of the of the pedestal at the top reads:
To the memory of the following officers non-commisd officers and men who fell in the war in South Africa 1899-1902 gallantly serving their sovereign & country.
On the front at base is inscribed:
This monument is erected by public subscription.
A Memorial Committee was formed in the City of Manchester during 1902 to raise the necessary funds. On 26 October 1908 the memorial was dedicated by the Bishop of Manchester and unveiled by General Sir Ian Hamilton. The 2nd Battalion provided a Guard of Honour.
The memorial raised to the men of the Manchester Regiment, both regular army soldiers and volunteers from the Volunteer Battalions who died in the South African War was Manchester's first major outdoor war memorial. Calls for a memorial were made during the war itself following reports of the heroic actions of the Manchester Regiment, but it was felt that such an act would be premature. Towards the end of 1902 the regiment began to consider schemes to memorialise their fallen comrades. Proposals included an outdoor war memorial, a tablet in Manchester Cathedral and, more ambitiously, a soldiers' club.
The idea of the outdoor war memorial and a smaller memorial in the Cathedral was accepted. The initial proceedings of Manchester's Soldiers' War Memorial Fund were uncontroversial as the committee set about raising £2,000, the sum that had been set as necessary to realise the project. By January 1904 over £1,900 had been subscribed and discussions turned to the question of selecting the sculptor. A limited competition appeared to be the way forward and the Executive Committee recommended that six sculptors - Frampton, William Hamo Thornycroft, Henry Pegram, Alfred Drury, Frederick Pomeroy and John Cassidy should be invited to submit designs. This recommendation was not accepted by the General Committee, which decided to appoint Thornycroft.
The decision upset many subscribers who felt that there should have been an open competition: 'the narrowest and worst form of Protection, unworthy of a broad-minded, progressive, Free Trade city like Manchester.' More particularly, there was a group of subscribers keen that the memorial should be awarded to the Manchester sculptor, John Cassidy. They used the press to draw attention to the committee's decision, clearly unhappy at what they regarded as the dishonourable behaviour of Thornycroft supporters on the committee.
A special private meeting of the committee was called by the Lord Mayor to examine the case but in the end the decision stood. Thornycroft was to be the sculptor though in what was to be another area of dissatisfaction among committee members, it was announced that because of his other commissions, he would not be able to complete the memorial for two and a half years. His supporters, however, did not forget Cassidy, and he was commissioned privately to produce a war memorial.
When Thornycroft eventually began work on the memorial he produced a composition based on an incident during one of the regiment's most celebrated engagements, the fighting at Caesar’s Camp, Ladysmith. Entitled 'Comrades', it depicted two life-size figures, one soldier standing over a wounded colleague who is offering a cartridge to continue the fight. Two soldiers from the regiment were used as the models; one of whom was Captain Edmund Nelson Fisher, whose family was later presented with a bust based on the statue.
The location of the memorial was still undecided in 1907 when the memorial committee approached the Corporation's Town Hall Committee to discuss the possibility of siting it in Albert Square, particularly as the removal of the jubilee fountain was being contemplated. It was suggested that either the war memorial might be placed on the site of the fountain or, if that was not suitable, then the Bishop Fraser statue could be moved there, allowing the war memorial to be located on the edge of the square. However the Town Hall Committee ruled out Albert Square.
Further discussions followed before the council and the committee agreed on St Ann's Square. Local shopkeepers campaigning to improve the square welcomed the idea of the memorial. Thornycroft had been right to make it clear that the memorial could not be completed quickly. The memorial was not to be finally completed until 1908. It was cast at Singer's foundry at Frome. As the long awaited inauguration was finally being arranged - Salford's memorial had been unveiled three years before - a further appeal for funds to reduce the outstanding deficit of £350. Manchester's principal South African War memorial was unveiled in October 1908, almost six years since the start of the discussions to raise a memorial. General Sir Ian Hamilton recalled the heroic deeds of the Manchester Regiment in South Africa including their battle at Elandslaagte before he removed the Union Jack covering the memorial.
Thornycroft's depiction of the dramatic episode in the war found widespread approval, a sculpture that could be regarded as an important addition to the city's collection of public monuments. In the words of the Manchester Guardian, it was a work that was 'dignified, impressive and rich with virile beauty.’ But had journalists made a closer study of the sculpture particularly the names identified on the list they would have discovered that not all those in the war were recorded.
The war memorial became a place of remembrance for the regiment on Elandslaagte Day (October 21) and later on Remembrance Day. Throughout the more recent changes made to the layout of St Ann's Square, the memorial has remained in its original position, the granite protectors at the corners of the pedestal a reminder of a time when wheeled traffic filled the square.
Timberman