Stained Glass of Percy Bacon

I visited Holy Trinity as the church was welcoming visitors to one of their regular Heritage Open Days, and was met by one of the churchwardens who had written a very good guide to the stained glass windows. She was able to furnish me with some very interesting facts regarding the Percy Bacon windows, and in particular the circumstances of the insertion of the large memorial window at the west end of the nave.

West Window: War, Devastation, Valour, Victory, Peace, Plenty.

West Window War Memorial. 1919.
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East Window; 1910. Crucifixion. St Andrew, Blessed Virgin, St John & St Paul.

The original design signed by Percy Bacon.
Photo courtesy of Clare Halse.

Lower Lights. War, represented by medieval knights in battle, while in the background a conflagration ensues. Devastation: A knight in armour kneels, his sword used as the symbol of the cross. In the distance a cathedral burns. Courage and Valour represented by St George and St Michael. Victory is represented by the much used motif of a medieval knight holding aloft the Wreath of Victory, Peace by music and the release of white doves (love). Plenty is represented by the next generation.

War and Devastation.

The conflagrations of War and Devastation represented by burning cathedrals.

Courage, Valour, and Victory.

Peace and Plenty..

Upper lights: Christ the King flanked by the angelic host.

Christ the King.

Tracery detail:

Tracery detail:

Tracery detail:

Tracery detail: Omega Symbol.

Posted 11 September 2023.

At the outset of the First World War, the incumbent of Holy Trinity, the Rev. C. T. "Bernard" McNulty joined the 4th South Midlands Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (south Midlands Division) where he served as the brigade chaplain. He served with his unit for a good portion of the war in France and Belgium, from where he would write regular dispatches back to his parishioners which were printed in the local press and newspapers. These were sometimes polemical, but almost always exuded a sense of patriotic fervour, and a keen wish to see Britain prevail against "the Foe", whom he considered to be a Great Evil. His service and experiences of the horrors of war doubtless had a great influence on the subject matter for the window. Unlike many sanitised war memorial windows, it pulls no punches, recounting not just the victory, but reliving the devastation which war inflicts, especially in its portrayal of burning cathedrals. It is also unusual in not just looking back at the harrowing aspects of war, but also forward to the prospect of a better future.

In its 2nd January 1920 edition, the local newspaper, The Leamington Courier ran an extensive article reporting on the window's dedication ceremony on 28th December 1919, Appended to this was a description of the window written by Percy Bacon.

Mr. Bacon says: "The centre openings are occupied above the transom with a representation of the Entrance to Paradise, with the figure of Our Lord in the centre standing in Glory in an appealing attitude, with angels kneeling and heralding forth to the world that the Great Sacrifice having been made, He now as King of Kings is there to receive all those heroes who have mode the great sacrifice—and others—into the Kingdom of God. Below the transom is represented St. Michael overcoming the Dragon, emblematical of Victory over Sin and Death, and surrounded by the Heavenly Host including the Archangels Gabriel and Uriel, and on one side St. George, the Patron Saint of England, holding sword and shield upon which is emblazoned St. George's Cross, and wreaths and oak leaves at his feet. On the other side a triumphant figure in armour with lance, wreaths and palm branches at his feet, and holding a wreath aloft emblematical of Victory. The whole of the centre portion of window is representative of Heaven and the Triumph of Good over Evil, The two left-hand lights contain heroic figures illustrating War by champions of the Middle Ages, Knights, Crusaders and Ancient Britons, the one the foreground kneeling and praying for Victory through his sword held as an emblem of the Cross. The rest of this section speaks of devastation, with burning cathedrals in the distance. The two right-hand lights typify Peace and Plenty by means of allegorical figures of Music, Love, Thanksgiving, Prosperity and Concord, with children, flowers, lambs, birds, etc., and prosperous cornfields in the distance. We now come to the Tracery. Starting from the top, we have an angel holding the emblem the Holy Trinity, to whom the church dedicated, with Censing Angels on either side, representing Prayer. The two wreaths immediately below contain the two sacred monograms I.H.S. and X.P.C., and the right, and left of these will be found the Greek letters A and O. the Beginning and the End. The two remaining angels with arms extended hold wreaths in either hand, and all are surrounded with Cherubim and Seraphim and the Heavenly Host. Above the lights representing War will be seen the words which are the attributes always accompanying brave men in the case of war, vis.. Justice and Mercy, and on the other side, above Peace, words describing its natural sequence, i.e.. Love and Joy".

The east window by the Bacon Studios of 1920 in St Stephen's, St Stephen-by-Launceston, Cornwall, uses similar cartoons and themes as that in Holy Trinity, Leamington Spa. The window of four lights is significantly smaller and allows only the themes of War, Devastation, Peace, and Plenty.

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War and Peace, a war memorial window at St Peter's Dunchurch, Warwickshire, used the same designs as Holy Trinity, Leamington Spa.

War and Peace by Percy Bacon & Brothers.
St Peter's, Dunchurch, Warwickshire.

The west window in Holy Trinity is a fine example of the war memorial windows made by Percy Bacon, his largest of that genre, and quite possibly his first to make extensive use of allegorical figures. The style of the window which incorporated these figures to exemplify the virtues of fallen soldiers would develop between 1916 and continue into the 1920s.

Between 1914 and April 1917, Percy Bacon and Brothers produced very few windows in memory of fallen soldiers. Those that were commissioned such as one of the earliest of 1915 in St Michael & All Angels, Marwood, Devon, bore representations of Christ Consoler and St George, the latter emblematic of courage and victory. Reinforcing the symbolic nature of St George, the words, “I have fought the good fight” were sometimes used to exemplify duty. At St Mary, Guildford, in a window installed in September 1915 to commemorate a young officer killed in the Persian Gulf, the subject was, “Victory through Sacrifice”, and depicted a shining knight before the cross. Another window by Percy Bacon & Brothers installed in early 1917, at St Mary, Longfleet, Dorset, depicted Christ the Consoler and a wounded soldier. The window at Marwood depicts St George wearing a laurel leaf crown, emblematic of Victory, and looking up to the left. This pose would be developed over the next couple of years into the allegorical figure commonly used to represent Victory that we see in the Holy Trinity window; a striking figure in armour with right hand held aloft clutching the laurel wreath crown.

Following the closure of the firm of Percy Bacon & Brothers in April 1917, and its restart shortly after under the name Percy Bacon Limited (see History of the Firm), a significant change begins to emerge in the firm’s memorial windows. Although St George or St Michael as exemplars of courage, valour, duty and victory over evil, were far from abandoned,¹ allegorical figures bearing the names of those virtues would begin making an appearance, especially in 1919. Following the previous two lean years, Percy Bacon's output in 1919 would eclipse all other years in its entire history, with over thirty installed. Perhaps one of the earliest World War One memorials whith these figures is a three light window of April 1916 installed in St John the Baptist, Bognor Regis, West Sussex. This window depicted Christ the Consoler in the central light, flanked by the figures of Courage and Victory, designs for the latter two widely being reused. This window survived the demolition of St John's and was reinstalled at St Mary's, Ulverston in 1972 at the behest of the original donor.

In 1917 at St Pega, Peakirk, Cambridgeshire, the central figure is an unnamed allegorical knight in armour with sword and shield, flanked by two Biblical warriors, Joshua and David. From 1919, more windows using the motif of allegorical figures would appear, and cartoons would often be recycled. At St Nicholas, Hornsea, in a window installed in April 1919, St George is flanked by the Courage and Victory. The designs for the latter two would be used at St Bartholomew, Quorn, Leicestershire (1920), St Swithun’s, Sandy, Bedfordshire (1921), St Peter's, Dunchurch, Warwickshire (October 1920), and at Holy Trinity, Leamington Spa (December 1919). In fact the designs for Valour and Victory, and War and Peace at Dunchurch are identical to those used at Holy Trinity (it is of note that the Rev. McNulty had been the incumbent at Dunchurch prior to his move to Leamington Spa in 1912). At St Paul's Cathedral, Dunedin, New Zealand, the Sandy scheme is repeated in a window of 1921, but here the figures are renamed Fortitude and Patriotism.² As mentioned above, in the east window at St Stephen’s, St Stephen-by-Launceston, Cornwall (1920), the Holy Trinity Scheme is copied wholesale, though minus Valour and Victory.

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1. Both St Michael and St George appear in the window in Holy Trinity.
2. See Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3443, 28 June 1921, p2. Also Footsteps, Jotara's Travels Blog.