"A war memorial is a war memorial, isn't it? We know what it is and what it means. Look at the memorial in Wavertree churchyard. Have you ever looked at it, actually? Hasn't its cross an odd whiff of a 1920s cinema? And why are there no names on it? Where are the names? - inside the Church. Who are they? Did they all die? Why aren't they in alphabetical order? Why are they attached to a picture which comes from St Petersburg?

"How were people remembered who died in wars before 1914? Inside the church, there's a memorial brass to a young man who died in South Africa that provides some of the answer. What about all the men who died in the Napoleonic Wars, in the Crimea, in many colonial wars during the time that Wavertree Church has existed - why are they not listed somewhere?

"Who was the sculptor? - actually the same man, a young soldier recently released from army duties, who sculpted a number of memorials between 1920 (Wavertree) and 1930, when his Liverpool City memorial outside St George's Hall was finally unveiled. But Wavertree was where it all began!

"Who chose the sculptor? Who put the names together? Who raised the money? You begin to see why I want this to be a visit, not just a passive talk. We'll visit the graves of the Rector who inaugurated the first public war memorial on Merseyside, of his main artistic adviser (Sir Charles Reilly) and a few post-1918 graves of servicemen which obey the strict instructions of the Imperial War Graves Commission, worked out well before 1918.

"I can promise plenty of questions, perhaps rather fewer answers …"