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Boer War Memorial is a heritage-listed war memorial at Crescent Street, Gatton, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by William Hodgen and produced by Toowoomba mason William Bruce. It was built in 1908, and was unveiled on 3 August by Governor of Queensland, Lord Chelmsford. The memorial honours four local men who died in or as a result of the war, and is one of only three known Boer War memorials in Queensland. It is also known as the Fallen Soldiers Memorial and the South African War Memorial. The memorial consists of a life-size statue of a digger, atop a pedestal with marble plaques stating the names and ranks of the men who died. The memorial was originally located in the intersection of Railway and Crescent Streets and was moved to its current location in the late 1970s. In 1984 the monument was sandblasted to remove layers of paint. The original statue had been made of Italian marble; it was replaced at some stage by the current sandstone statue, and when or for what reason is unknown. The memorial was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.〔 == History == In April 1907, a public meeting was held at which it was decided to erect a memorial. A design competition was announced and was won by Toowoomba architect, William Hodgen.〔 William Hodgen was born in Toowoomba in 1866. He was employed by the Queensland Colonial Architect's Office in Brisbane from 1886 to 1891 when he left for London. On his return to Queensland in 1896 he established a private practice in Toowoomba and designed buildings throughout Queensland. The Gatton Boer War Memorial is an unusual example of his work.〔 The pedestal was produced by Toowoomba monumental mason, Walter Bruce and the statue was imported from Italy. The total cost of the monument was £200.〔 The Gatton memorial was constructed at an early phase of the history of war memorials in the state. After World War I, the construction of war memorials was prolific. In 1908, when this memorial was unveiled, they were still quite rare.〔 Australian war memorials are valuable evidence of imperial and national loyalties, at the time not seen as conflicting; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects; and of popular taste. In Queensland, the soldier statue, which was first used to commemorate those died in the Boer War, became the popular choice of memorial for the First World War. This was in contrast to the southern states where the obelisk predominated.〔 The digger statue later embodied the ANZAC myth, representing the qualities of the ideal Australian - loyalty, courage, youth, innocence and masculinity. The digger was a phenomenon peculiar to Queensland, perhaps due to the fact that other states had followed Britain's lead and established Advisory Boards made up of architects and artists, prior to the erection of war memorials. The digger statue was not highly regarded by artists and architects who were involved in the design of relatively few Queensland memorials〔 Most statues were constructed by local masonry firms, although some were by artists or imported.〔 There are only three known Boer War memorials in Queensland in the form of the digger. Of these only two were erected shortly after the war. These are the Allora Memorial, erected in 1904 and the Gatton Memorial, erected in 1908. The third Boer memorial, in Brisbane, was not unveiled until 1919.〔 This memorial was originally located in the intersection of Railway and Crescent Streets and was moved in the late 1970s. It originally stood on a stepped base, which was lost in the relocation. In 1984 the monument was sandblasted to remove layers of paint. The original Italian marble digger statue, which was said to be very realistic, was replaced by the current sandstone statue. When this occurred, or for what reason is unknown.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Boer War Memorial, Gatton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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