The Eastwood Cadet Corps Institute was established in December 1901 to provide social and educational facilities for local youths aged from 16 to 31 years. With an associated Boys Life Brigade for children aged 12 to 16, the Institute arranged a range of activities throughout the year including Ambulance drills three times a week. By January 1927 the organisation had become the Eastwood Ambulance Training Corps. A number of its members and ex-members served during the First World War.
The war memorial garden is located to the north-west side of the junction of Nottingham Road and Edward Road. The garden is enclosed by coursed and coped stone walls to the north-east and south-west. The front wall on the south-east side is formed of stone blocks into which is carved, either side of the garden gate, the inscription SO THEY PASSED OVER AND ALL THE TRUMPETS/ SOUNDED FOR THEM ON THE OTHER SIDE.
The war memorial cross was erected in 1927 by members of the Training Corps. It commemorates seven men who died, including two men who died after the 11 November 1918 Armistice with Germany. The central memorial comprises a tall stone wheel-head cross in the Celtic style with a reversed sword carved in low relief to the front face of the cross head and shaft. To the foot of the cross shaft a shallow shield encloses an arrow in flight, carved in low relief. Below that the inscription NON SIBI [‘Not for self’] is carved in low relief. The cross rises from a tapering pedestal that stands on a plinth. The whole is raised on a large concrete base, approached by a flight of stone steps to the front.
The principal dedicatory inscription is recorded in gilded incised lettering on a slate plaque inset to the front face of the pedestal. It reads TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY OF THE/ CADETS OF THE EASTWOOD AMBULANCE TRAINING CORPS,/ WHO VOLUNTEERED FOR SERVICE AND FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918/ (NAMES)/ AND MANY EX MEMBERS OF THE CORPS. The commemorated names are recorded with rank, regiment, and the places where the men served and died. A later slate plaque, inserted into the front face of the plinth, bears an incised inscription reading THE WORLD WAR: 1939-1945/ (NAME) THE SEVEN SEAS 1915-1942/ ALSO EX-MEMBERS OF THE CORPS.
The seven men had served in different regiments, but two appear to have used their medical training. Private Horace Goff (d 1916) joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and was serving in 74th Field Ambulance Unit on the Somme when he died whilst attending a wounded man. Private James Wing (d 1918) also spent time on medical duties as a stretcher-bearer in 1917.
In addition to the central wheel-head cross, the memorial garden incorporates a granite cross and bronze memorial plaque commemorating the Sherwood Foresters (the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment): this is Eastwood’s copy of the Sherwood Foresters’ plaque. At the unveiling in 1923 of the regimental memorial, the Crich Stand, General Smith-Dorrien had expressed his wish that each settlement in the two counties should have a plaque duplicating the details of the plaques at Derby Guildhall and St Peter’s Church Nottingham commemorating the 11,409 servicemen of the regiment who died in the First World War. The inscription, including 45th FOOT and 95th FOOT flanking the regimental badge to the top of the plaque, reads ON CRICH HILL A MONUMENT IS ERECTED/ IN MEMORY OF/ 11,409 OF ALL RANKS OF/ THE SHERWOOD FORESTERS/ (NOTTINGHAMSHIRE AND DERBYSHIRE REGT)/ WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES/ FOR THEIR KING AND THEIR COUNTRY/ IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919/ WHOSE NAMES/ ARE RECORDED WITH GRATITUDE AND LOVE IN/ BOOKS OF REMEMBRANCE/ DEPOSITED IN/ NOTTINGHAM AND DERBY/ AND ALSO IN HONOUR OF/ ALL THEIR COMRADES WHO GLORIOUSLY SERVED/ IN 32 BATTALIONS OF THE SAME REGIMENT/ TO THE NUMBER OF/ 140,000.
The memorial garden wall includes a small bench with a plaque commemorating the support of Jane Roberts (d1922) who raised over £100 for the Ambulance Training Corps funds. The original plaque recording the dedication to Jane Roberts was replaced in 2002 and reads: THIS SEAT WAS PLACED HERE BY THE EASTWOOD AMBULANCE TRAINING CORPS/ IN MEMORY OF JANE ROBERTS/ WHO RAISED OVER ONE HUNDRED POUNDS FOR THE CORPS FUNDS/ BY DEVOTING HER LEISURE TIME FOR MANY YEARS TO MAKING SMALL ARTICLES/ AND SELLING THEM FOR A FEW PENCE/ SHE WAS BORN IN EASTWOOD AND DIED DECEMBER 1922, AGED 74 YEARS.
More details about the names of those commemorated on the memorial can be found on Nottinghamshire County Council website Eastwood – Cadets of the Ambulance Training Corps (nottinghamshire.gov.uk)
Information taken from Historic England Website Eastwood Ambulance Training Corps War Memorial, Eastwood – 1439456 | Historic England