St Peter Bushey Heath - St George's Chapel

St George's Chapel

At 3pm on the 3rd of July 1921, the Foundation Stone was laid to a new Memorial Chapel by General Phipps Hornby VC CB CMG, later to be dedicated to St George and named ‘The Warriors’ Chapel’. General Phipps Hornby, as a serving officer in the Royal Horse Artillery, was awarded his VC in the Boer War following an action on 31st March 1900 at Korn Spruit when his battery was ambushed. He went into action and saved most of his men and guns.

The Memorial Chapel was built by public subscription and designed by Fellowes Prynne as an addition on the south side of the Chancel and in the same style as his main re-build project a few years earlier. It was conceived as a well proportioned miniature church in itself. There is a nave, separated from the main church by a delicate three- bay arcade of richly moulded arches on clustered piers. There is a chancel arch leading into a sanctuary, formerly separated from the nave by two steps, with a seven-sided apse of French influence. The parish war memorial is on the south wall of the nave.

War Memorial

All the windows have stained glass. The two groups of three windows above the war memorial are by Percy Bacon Brothers and are listed in the 1930 Directory of the British Society of Master Glass Painters (page 9). They were given by various members of the congregation in memory of their loved ones who died in the Great War:

St Alban, St Andrew & St Martin

Alban - in memory of David & Macfie Keith Johnston RNAS 1915

Andrew- given by the congregation. Armistice Day 1923

Martin - given by the congregation. Patronal Festival 1924

St Patrick St George St David

Patrick - given by mothers

George- given by comrades

David - in memory of David Angus Gibbs aged 19. Somme 1918

The Apse Windows

The windows in the apse depict Christ the King, St George and twelve attendant saints - Barbara, Damian, Francis, Edmund Rex, Alban, Joan, Nicholas, Christopher, Oswald, Alphege, Vincent and Stephen. They are bolder in style with arches of art nouveau and are executed in vibrant colours with much purple and viridian. According to Peter Cormack (Women Stained Glass Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement -1985) they are by Joan Fulleylove (1886 - 1947) daughter of the topographical artist John Fulleylove, including the window to St Peter in the south ambulatory. Her first window was a war memorial in Hampstead Parish Church and on the basis of that design she was asked to complete the windows for the Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum, Sudan. The windows in St Peter’s are thought to be versions of the designs for Khartoum.

Christ the King & St George

St Barbara & St Damian

St Francis & Edmund Rex

St Alban & St Joan

St Oswald & St Alphege

St Vincent & St Stephen

Sculptures

On the south wall are three sculptures. The finest is the centre figure of a Sorrowing Angel by Muriel Ida Perrin, the only daughter of Henry and Ida Perrin of The Cottage, Bushey Heath. She died aged 29 in the great `flu epidemic of 1919, followed within six weeks by their only son, Major Maurice Perrin, killed in a flying accident at Castle Bromwich. He is remembered on the war memorial in the chapel. The first service in the chapel took place on the 1st November 1921 although it was not officially consecrated until the 5th February 1922 by the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Bishop Lander. He gave a "stirring and helpful address on the subject of sacrifice".