Footsteps into the Past: Memorial windows, Bristol Cathedral

AS it's November 11 we thought we'd take a look at the remarkable sequence of stained glass windows in the North Aisle of Bristol Cathedral commemorating the work of Bristol's civilian services during the Second World War.

These were designed by Arnold Wathen Robinson (1888-1955), a scion of two wealthy Bristol families who decided that he would not go into business or politics; he wanted to make stained glass. He was apprenticed to stained glass artist Christopher Whall and returned to Bristol in 1912 as a director of Joseph Bell & Son, a local firm which specialised in church glass. He was owner of the company when it provided the Civil Defence windows for the Cathedral.

He served in the First World War – in which three of his four brothers were killed – and returned to Bristol spending the rest of his career making and repairing glass windows. He was also instrumental in reviving the fortunes of the Bristol Guild of Applied Art, which promoted the work of craftsmen and women as opposed to factory-produced goods. Its gallery and shop is still on Park Street to this day.

Robinson's work can be seen in churches all over the country, but there is plenty in Bristol apart from the Cathedral. Sites worth seeing include St Alban's in Westbury Park, the Wills Memorial Building and Tyndale Baptist Church in Clifton.

The Cathedral lost many of its windows during the Blitz, but Robinson's firm succeeded in restoring a number of them. At the time the return of the stained glass was ever so slightly regretted by some since the plain glass installed as a temporary measure allowed visitors a better look at many of its memorials and features.

The civilian services sequence of windows was installed piecemeal in the late 1940s, most of them paid for by members of the services concerned. They include depictions of the St John Ambulance Service and "Nursing Services", the British Red Cross Society and the fire services. There are air raid wardens and police officers (male and female), the Home Guard and the Women's Voluntary Service.

The sequence was not quite complete by 1950 when none other than Princess Elizabeth unveiled two on an official visit to the city. She was handed a pair of scissors to cut the ribbon by Robinson himself.

Shortly before this she had made a brief speech: "I pray that the sight of these windows may keep us and those who follow us mindful of the past services, and firmly resolved that the gallantry and sacrifice of these services shall not have been given in vain."