St George
Figure of the Christ Child – Photograph (PWDRO 116/96); after 1922
This statue is identical to the five others of the Christ child found in Plymouth and Cornwall. It has red and gold borders on the robe and stands on a plinth beneath a carved canopy. John E. Vigar of the Kent Churches website (kentchurches.info) was able to confirm that the statue remains in the church within what is still the children’s corner. A website devoted to the work of George H. Fellowes Prynne (gfp.sharville.org) states that the children’s corner at Benenden was designed by him. V. Pinwill worked with Prynne on several occasion, most notably on the screen at Landulph. There is an acknowledgement of the origin of the statue in the church guide, which informs that it is ‘a West Country wood carving’ (Lebon, undated p. 4). A plaque beneath the statue states that it was given in memory of Lieutenant Frank Cooper Ledgard of the Yorkshire Regiment, who died in October 1914 at Ypres, by his sister Lady Margaret Helen Ledgard. Margaret married Sir Henry Ledgard (probably her cousin) in 1922 and moved to Benenden (The Times, 1946), after which she commemorated her brother’s bravery in the church there.
Sources
Lebon, M. C. (undated) Benenden St. George’s Church. Guide and Brief Architectural History.
PWDRO 116/96 Photograph. Benenden. Figure of Christ Child.
The Times (1946) Obituaries. Sir Henry Ledgard. 18 October 1946 p. 7.