St James’ Memorial & Remembrance Garden
Remembrance Sunday
The St James Parish Memorial Garden is a place where we remember the sacrifice of so many who died in the first and second world wars. We remember them every year at a special service held in the garden every November.
We now also have a garden of remembrance for members of our church family who have died. The idea was first suggested in 2014 by Jenny & David Sagi after the death of their son Peter. In hindsight we had no idea how difficult it would be. Arranging a site for the interment of ashes is a complicated procedure in the Church of England. However, apart from all the legalities, fundraising and a lot of prayer, phone calls and emails we carried on.
Jenny and David Sagi
Brendan, Emmanuel
& Jamie get planting
We are fortunate to have a church member, Brendan Doyle, who was able to design a garden and provide plans which complied with all the requirements. We commissioned benches and hard landscaping to be professionally done. The church family would do the rest.
The plans for the interment details were investigated by Geoff Boulton and tubing pipes and lids ordered, along with lots of other materials. The final decision was to source large natural stones on which the names would be engraved to mark where the ashes were placed. There was a further delay due to Goldsmiths having necessary work done on the old church building which now houses its art facility. It was, therefore, not until 2015 that the Memorial Garden was Dedicated and Blessed by the then Bishop Michael of Woolwich.
Memorial to Joy Coxhead & Rosalind Hinds
We wanted to show our appreciation to two of our church family who had bequeathed to us large sums of money that enabled all the work to be completed and after much discussion a large granite stone engraved with their names was suggested. On the 27 October 2018, with the assistance of some able-bodied volunteers, we were able to install the memorial stone to Joy Coxhead and Rosalind hinds. With the help of the church family and their extended families we were able to finish the garden with extra interment plots and planting.
Our thanks go to everyone who helped us to bring to life Jenny and David Sagi’s vision in 2014. Peter Sagi was the first person to have their ashes interred in the memorial garden. Following Jenny’s death in 2018, her ashes were also interred in the garden.