Altar frontal in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool
September 2014
Gill Roberts and David Peglar have made an altar frontal which will be used in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Gill Roberts designed the Frontal which was inspired by two poems by the war poets. Gill says-
The original inspiration for the frontal was the poem “In Flanders Field”. The image of the cross, against the peaceful background of the land as it is now, was a key idea – the cross remains although the battlefield is no longer visible. During my research I found that huge number of men had died at that one location, so decided to symbolise that fact with the flowers, using the remembrance poppy of Britain with the cornflower used by France as their memorial flower. There are 55 flowers on the frontal; each flower represents 10,000 men who died on Flanders Field. The dead tree – I always think of them as ‘lightening trees’, struck down in their prime – also represents that which was once living, and now is dead, but whose shadow remains on the landscape.
The words ‘Dulce et Decorum Est, Pro Patria Mori’ is not only the title of a war poem by Wilfred Owen, but of an earlier phrase used at times of war “It is fine and noble to die for one’s country”. I felt it most relevant to use this in conjunction with the ‘Lest We Forget’, to emphasise two things: that this generation of young men volunteered to defend the rights of freedom and paid the ultimate price with their lives, and that they endured the carnage and horrors of the battlefield, so graphically described by Wilfred Owen, whilst they fought for their country. We should never forget the price paid by an entire generation of young men in the cause of the freedom we take for granted today.
Altar Frontal designed by Gill Roberts and embroidered by David Peglar and members of the Cathedral Embroidery Group, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral 2014
The altar Frontal was embroidered by Studio Director David Peglar and members of the Metropolitan Embroidery Studio group including Hilary McCormack and Vicky Williams and it will be used in the various World War One commemoration services over the next 4 years and also on Remembrance Sunday.
Altar frontal in Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral with some of the people who embroidered it, Oct 2014