 The floor of the original entrance hall, behind the portico, boasts an ornate mosaic combining both the Royal Arms and the unofficial Arms of Bolton as they appeared in 1973. The arms of the County Palatine of Lancaster also appear in the section of mosaic continuing into the corridor beyond.
On the same afternoon as the unveiling of the Cenotaph in 1928 (see left) the Bishop of Manchester, William Temple, dedicated the entrance hall as the Hall of Remembrance. Funded by public subscription, with a handsome bronze screen separating the Hall from the corridor, the subdued lighting (which is never extinguished) gives the space the feel of a peaceful chapel.
The dedication above the large bronze and glass doors that mark the entrance from within the Town Hall reads:
"THIS HALL OF REMEMBRANCE WAS SET APART TO ENSHRINE THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1919"
The purpose of the Hall of Remembrance is to house the Roll of Honour, which is in the form of an illuminated vellum book, kept under glass. This lists the names of over 3,500 Bolton men and women who lost their lives while under arms or as civilian casualties during the First World War. Open, printed inspection copies of the Roll of Honour are kept on a table opposite.
The criteria for inclusion used by the committee entrusted with compiling the Roll of Honour were:
"...to contain the names of those ordinarily resident in Bolton at the time of their enlistment, or were natives of the Borough and who fell in the Great War. Also any other exceptional cases to be considered on their merits."
Missing names may still be added to the Roll of Honour if they meet those original conditions.
THe Roll of Honour is confined to qualifying candidates from within the the pre-1974 Borough of Bolton.
The seven other townships that make up the current Metropolitan Borough have their own War Memorials and arrangements to honour the fallen.
 The floor mosaic of the Hall of Remembrance.
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 Inscription between the torches in the Hall of Remembrance:
"O GOD OF OUR FATHERS KEEP THIS FOR EVER IN THE IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF THE HEART OF THY PEOPLE AND PREPARE THEIR HEART UNTO THEE" - 1
Chronicles 29:18.
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 Inscription between the torches in the Hall of Remembrance:
"THEIR GLORY SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT AND THEIR NAME LIVETH TO ALL GENERATIONS" - Ecclesiasticus 44 13:14.
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 The Roll of Honour
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For the fallen...
Bolton's War Memorial, facing the Town Hall on Victoria Square, was unveiled (without the now familiar flanking statues) by the Earl of Derby on 4 July 1928, the main ceremonial stone having been laid by Sir Thomas Evans Flitcroft (Mayor of Bolton 1926-27) on Armistice Day, 11 November 1927.
“Tell ye your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children another generation.”
Joel 1:3
The bronze figures on either side of the Cenotaph - the left representing
"Peace Restraining War" and the right "Peace seeing the Horrors of War" - were finally unveiled on
Armistice Day 1932.
These themes were controversial at the time and a long way in sentiment from the triumphalism of many other war memorials of the period.
The sculptor was Walter Marsden, an Accrington man (and holder of the Military Cross and Bar) who had himself fought alongside many Boltonians at Ypres and Cambrai as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during the First World War.
He created several other exceptional war memorials in Lancashire and his first hand experiences of the realities and suffering of war are reflected in the quiet dignity of his work.
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