Great Western Railway War Memorial

The Great Western Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial by Charles Sargeant Jagger and Thomas S. Tait; it stands on platform 1 at Paddington station in London. The memorial commemorates 2,500 employees of the Great Western Railway who were killed in the conflict. One third of the GWR's workforce of almost 80,000 left to fight in the First World War, the company guaranteeing their jobs, and the company gave over its workshops for munitions manufacturing as well as devoting its network to transporting soldiers and military equipment. The GWR considered several schemes for a war memorial before approaching Jagger to design a statue. Some company officials continued to push for an alternate design, to the point that Jagger threatened to resign. Jagger was working on several other war memorial commissions at the same time as the GWR's, including his most famous, the Royal Artillery Memorial.