St. Clement Danes

By Dave O’Malley

 “Re-consecrated in 1958 as a perpetual shrine of remembrance to those killed on active service and those of the Allied Air Forces who gave their lives during the Second World War, it is a living church prayed in daily and visited throughout the year by thousands seeking solace and reflection,” St. Clement Danes on the Strand

Buried deep in Westminster, one of the most historic sectors of London, England, stands St. Clement Danes on the Strand. It has been a place of worship for more than 1,200 years and was named by the Danes in the 9^th century after St. Clement, the patron saint of mariners. It was rebuilt twice in its earlier years, once by William the Conqueror, and was in the care of the Knights Templar for 150 years. By the 17^th century, it had become derelict and, even though it survived the Great Fire of London in 1666, was demolished. Christopher Wren, the acclaimed British architect whose great masterpiece was St. Paul’s Cathedral, redesigned and rebuilt it in 1682.

Devastation struck St. Clement Danes on the evening of May 10, 1941, during the last night of the German- led Blitz over London, which had started on Sept. 6, 1940. On that May night, the church was ravaged by direct hits from incendiary bombs and lashed by huge chunks of shrapnel from near misses of high explosive aerial bombs. The Luftwaffe’s 550 bombers dropped load after load on central London and, when the sun came up on May 11, St. Clement Danes was a smoking shell. Many other buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged, including the Houses of Parliament, the British Museum and St. James Palace.

The death toll that night was 1,364 Londoners killed and 1,616 seriously injured. After the “all clear”, the British set to work to clear the rubble, bury their dead and get back to defeating the Nazis. Over the course of the Blitz, it is estimated that 43,000 civilians died (more half of them were Londoners) and more than a million London homes were destroyed or damaged.

After the war in 1945, the ruin that was Wren’s beautiful and elegant work was left until its future could be secured. The church was burned but still standing and it came to symbolize, along with the pilots of the Battle of Britain, the strength of the British resolve in the face of dire circumstance.

It was handed over to the Royal Air Force in 1953 and, following an appeal for funding that secured £ 250,000 [the equivalent of £ 4 million by today’s standards] and reached around the world to the airmen and air forces of the Commonwealth, the church was restored to its original Wren beauty in 1958.

St. Clement Danes was consecrated as the Central Church of the Royal Air Force and opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Today the church stands as a living and growing spiritual tribute to the sacrifices of the airmen of the Commonwealth during the Second World War and to the continuing sacrifices of the RAF to this very day.

Every inch of the walls, floor and ceiling is a memorial of some kind to airmen, including colours of disbanded units, a shrine to the 8^th and 9^th U.S. Air Force, a seemingly endless galaxy of 1,000 Welsh slate insets on the ground floor portraying RAF unit badges as well as a brass mosaic with an RAF crest surrounded by eight crests of the Commonwealth air forces.

There are gift tributes found throughout the church, including a lectern from the Royal Australian Air Force, an organ from the U.S. Air Force, an alter from the Netherlands Air Force and a candelabrum from the Belgian Air Force.

Somewhat soiled and grey on the outside and pockmarked by shrapnel, the interior is a sunlit sanctuary that begs for silence, encourages contemplation and awards the visitor with spiritual warmth. There is a spirit of triumph and yet there is a lesson on human failure here too – how they blend so well is a mystery. Gold leaf, carvings, military colours, holy names and an ocean of squadron crests speak to glory, history and accomplishment, while the totality of the sacrifice of airmen and women during the wars of the 20th century hangs like smoke in the air.

St. Clement Danes represents closure for a city, a nation, the Commonwealth and its Allies. The rebirth of St. Clement Danes represents a moment of spectacular creativity by the Royal Air Force.