Local The Response 1914 Home

'The Response' by Sir William Goscombe John. Unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1923; restored and rededicated, 2007. Bronze figures in high relief on a rusticated granite screen, in the grounds of St Thomas's Church, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. It was commissioned by Sir George and Lady Renwick to commemorate the raising of several companies of Northumberland Fusiliers, and the safe return of the Renwicks' five sons from the Great War.
The sculpture depicts men leaving their families and factories to respond to the call to arms at the outbreak of WW1.

The Response
Family farewell Father and son
Workers Beckoning Boy
The wife Boy with rifle
At The Front
Rear

On the reverse side, St George standing on two seahorses with linked tails (a feature taken from the city's coat-of-arms), a seventeenth-century militia man with the date 1674 below him, and a Northumberland fusilier with the date 1919 below him.