Postscript: domestic shrines and commercial frames

Inspired possibly by the tradition of the 'street shrine' (localised physical expressions of public grief entirely spontaneous in their origin) it was common for memorial plaques and scrolls, sometimes additionally embellished by the deceased's war medals, to be displayed in thousands of homes after the First World War. In that more deferential and less sophisticated age it was not felt out of place to honour the memory of one who had by definition made the ultimate sacrifice by the establishment of personalised domestic shrines. Commercially made frames, produced by a variety of manufacturers, facilitated such household displays. The frames did not please Hill:

As to the frames, anyone who pleases can put on the market...such things. Of course if we had a proper 'Committee of Taste' such things could not happen

Many plaques were further honoured by regular and vigorous cleaning, an obliterating fate, especially for the impoverished later casts, which Hill had early on gloomily foreseen.

All the poor people will scrub the plaque to keep it bright like soldiers' buttons (doesn't the thought make you shiver?).