South Chancel Window
The South Chancel Memorial window was installed in All Saints Church Hoby in the early 1920s and the bottom panel lists the members of the extended Beresford family who were killed in the First World War. As such, it is classified as a war memorial by the War Memorials Trust.
The window was gifted to the Church by Rev Edward Aden Beresford and his wife Annie Mary Beresford and their initials appear at the very top of the window. The Beresford family provided Rectors for Hoby cum Rotherby for many years. The first, Rev Gilbert Beresford, became Rector in 1838. He married Anne Browne, the only daughter of Rev Henry Browne of Hoby, in 1805. The last Beresford to hold the post was Rev Hans Aden Beresford. The Beresford’s continued to hold the living of Hoby cum Rotherby until 1976 when Miss Pamela Beresford (Hans Aden’s daughter) transferred the responsibility to the Bishop of Leicester.
Edward and Annie Mary’s sons, Hans and Gilbert served in the First World War. Hans became Rector of Hoby cum Rotherby when his father retired in 1922, he died in 1949. Gilbert died young in 1926 in a mental institution in Nottingham. Flight Lieutenant Hugh Richard Aden Beresford, the only son of Hans, was killed in action on 27th September 1940 during the Second World War when his Hurricane was shot down during the Battle of Britain. He is commemorated on the north chancel wall in All Saints Church.
The South Chancel window is similar to one gifted to the Parish Church of St Edmund King and Martyr, Fenny Bentley near Ashbourne, Derbyshire by Rev Edward Beresford in memory of his father Henry Browne Beresford (1810-1869). The design for the window is thought to be the work of Miss Alice Erskine of Stamford who had been involved in other work at All Saints Church Hoby in the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War. In particular she painted the images of the twelve disciples on the chancel screen as well as the panels in front of the High Altar. She is also thought to have painted the ceiling above the chancel sanctuary and the panels upon which the Lords Prayer and the Creed are written.
The Beresford panel in the South Chancel window
The Beresford’s commemorated on the South Chancel window are all descendants of, or married to descendants of, Rev Gilbert & Anne Beresford.
Lt. Col. Percy William Beresford D.S.O
3rd battalion of the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), killed in action (3rd Ypres) on 26th October 1917 whilst commanding the 2nd / 3rd Battalion, London Regiment. He is buried in Gwalia Cemetery, Belgium (Near Poperinghe).
Major Arthur Jardine Beresford-Havelock
North Staffordshire Regiment, killed at Baku, Azerbaijan on 14th September 1918 aged 28. He was mentioned in dispatches and is commemorated on the Haidar Pasha Memorial.
Major William Cecil Beresford
Royal Defence Corps, died of wounds on 9th October 1917 at Burdon Military Hospital Weymouth
Brig. Gen. Sir Hay Frederick Donaldson
Adviser to the Ministry of Munitions, died on 5th June 1916 accompanying Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener on a mission to Russia, when the ship in which they were travelling, HMS Hampshire, struck a German mine off the Orkney Islands.
