Trinity-St Paul’s Union Church in Queen Street, Cambridge, was opened in November 1979 (the St Paul’s Methodist Church and Trinity Presbyterian Church congregations had combined in 1972).
Two rolls of honour are displayed on an exterior wall at Trinity-St Paul’s. One is a marble scroll inscribed with the names of 17 men who died in the First World War and one man (T.J. Beer) who died in the Second World War. This was originally unveiled in the old St Paul’s Methodist Church on 28 August 1921, and was rededicated on 16 March 1947. The other is a larger, pedimented marble tablet which was unveiled in Trinity Presbyterian Church on 10 July 1921. This lists the names of 11 men from the Trinity congregation who died in the First World War. A Second World War roll of honour, listing five names, was unveiled on 3 December 1948, at the same time that the newly refurbished church was itself rededicated as the ‘first part’ of the church’s Second World War peace memorial.
A framed wooden tablet with the names of all the 57 men from the St Paul’s congregation who served in the First World War was unveiled at the same time as the marble scroll; a similar tablet listing another 31 names was unveiled after the Second World War. The whereabouts of these tablets is now unknown. However, a framed roll of honour listing the names of 47 men and one woman (Sister E. Nicholl) from the Trinity congregation who served during the Second World War survives in the Cambridge Museum.
A peace memorial Sunday School hall was opened at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Armistice Day 11 November 1922. This was extended as the ‘second part’ of the church’s Second World War peace memorial in 1949. After the new Trinity-St Paul’s church was opened, the old Trinity church was sold. The former church is currently used as a bar-restaurant; the peace memorial hall was demolished in 1983 to make way for a service station.
Sources: ‘War Memorial Unveiled at Cambridge’, Waikato Times, 11/7/1921, p. 5; ‘Service of Commemoration: Unveiling Memorial Rolls: St. Paul’s Methodist Church’, Waikato Independent, 30/8/1921, p. 5; ‘Cambridge News: Trinity Church Jubilee’, NZ Herald, 14/11/1922, p. 5; ‘Re-dedication of Trinity Church: Unveiling of Memorial’, Waikato Independent, 3/12/1948, p. 5; ‘Trinity Church Reviews Year of Progress’, Waikato Independent, 19/8/1949, p. 5; Trinity Presbyterian Church, Cambridge: Diamond Jubilee, 1872-1932, Cambridge, 1932, p. 8; L. Shapcott, A Great Cloud of Witnesses: Cambridge Methodist Centenary, 1867-1967, pp. 38, 56; Trinity Presbyterian Church Celebrates a Century, 1872-1972, ed. T.C. Wallace, Cambridge, 1972, pp. 12-15; ‘Old Church Hall Crumbles’, Cambridge Independent, 21/6/1983; Margaret Vosper, A Short History of Cambridge Churches, Cambridge, 1990.
Community contributions