Budleigh Salterton’s official War Memorial stands at the junction of Coastguard Road and Marine Parade, fittingly taking in land, sea and air, as men from the town fought in the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines, as well as on land in a wide range of army units, and in the air with the Royal Flying Corps. Also honoured on the memorial are the women who died in the service of their country in the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

The memorial was unveiled on 11 November 1922, four years to the day after the Armistice. A parade to mark the occasion was led by John William Palmer, brother of Serjeant Tristram Coppleston Palmer who had been wounded in action in August 1918 and who had died of his wounds shortly after. Lieutenant John William Palmer had served overseas with the 9th Devonshire Regiment.

Like many memorials across the land, names of those killed in World War II were added at the end of that conflict. The names of 45 of the fallen from the Great War, the “War to End All Wars”, are carved on the shaft of the Budleigh Salterton memorial’s granite cross. Forty-eight names from the 1939-45 conflict are on the plinth.

Memorial Inscription

To the Glory of God, and in grateful and honoured memory of those from this parish who gave their lives in the service of their country during the Great War 1914-1918