London, GB | Formerly of New York, Buenos Aires, Fife, and the Western Cape. | Saoránach d’Éirinn.

Remembering the Seventh

It is entirely appropriate that November 11 — Armistice Day — both falls during the month of the Holy Souls and on the feast of St. Martin of Tours. It’s not unlikely that the souls in Purgatory added their voices to plead for peace that November of 1918, and St. Martin, who had himself been a Roman soldier, was no doubt leading the cause from Heaven. (Indeed, his father having been in the Imperial Horse Guards, St. Martin was born into a military family).

The Seventh Regiment Memorial is on Fifth Avenue at 67th Street. The sculpture of seven doughboys was created by Karl Illava, a veteran of the Seventh, in memory of the regiment’s men who died breaking the Hindenburg Line as part of the British Fourth Army in 1918. Grace Glueck noted (in the New York Times) that the realism of Illava’s monument “puts us in touch with the drama of history in a way that abstract art cannot”.

These photos are from a May 1956 ceremony marking the foundation of the Seventh Regiment. While, scandalously, the Seventh has since been disbanded (and the beautiful armory its members built with their own resources illegally seized & demilitarized by the State), the dead of the venerable regiment are still remembered each year on the weekend closest to Veteran’s Day.

Incidentally, it was at this intersection — Fifth Avenue & 67th Street — in 1931 that Winston Churchill was hit by an automobile and nearly killed. Historians tell us that he was visiting Bernard Baruch who lived nearby, but I fancy the old bulldog wanted to have a look at the Seventh Regiment Memorial.

Published at 7:38 pm on Saturday 29 November 2008. Categories: History Military New York Tags: , , , , .
Comments

Thank you for the pictures. I’d seen that memorial before, but never knew what it was.

— crusader88 30 Nov 2008 12:36 am

Dear Mr. Cusack,

Thank you so much, for these lovely pictures of the 7th.

Dad and his brother were in E Company as young men, back in the 1930s. I’ve a photo of them, standing side by side, wearing the famous uniform.

As a lifelong New Yorker, with an intimate knowledge of the City, he would have enjoyed your blog thoroughly. I can assure you that his daughter does.

Cordially,

Laurie Morrow

— Laurie Morrow 30 Nov 2008 4:03 am

Superb.
When America was still America, and New York New York.

— L Gaylord Clark 1 Dec 2008 6:59 pm

Magnificent monument, and pictures.

— MCNS 4 Dec 2008 9:59 am

I have to say this is a great article about a great unit. My grandfather was in Company L in the 50’s and was very proud of the time he spent with the 7th. Are there any more pictures from this ceremony?

— Erik Genalo 2 Jan 2014 8:27 pm

Good of you to remind us of this with your recent “tweet”.
I know the names of a good dozen or two of my relations who were officers (one second in command, another third) from the 1810s to the 1930s. Their names were a roll-call of old New York: Brinckerhoff, Telfair, and Todd; Curtis, Chasseaud, and Moffat, Hopkins, Outcalt, and a dozen more.
Their timer in the sun is long past, but they left a splendid monument and a storied history behind them; it is right to honour their memory, and to take heart from their example.

— L G Clark 21 Nov 2016 11:01 pm
Leave a comment

NAME (required)

EMAIL (required)

WEBSITE (not required)

COMMENT

Home | About | Contact | Paginated Index | Twitter | Facebook | RSS/Atom Feed
andrewcusack.com | © Andrew Cusack 2004-present (Unless otherwise stated)