Belfast Newsletter Monday 12/6/1922 reported: 'PRINTING TRADES. BELFAST WAR MEMORIAL. Unveiled by Lord Justice Moore. NOBLE RECORD OF SERVICE. In Belfast Cathedral yesterday afternoon the handsome war memorial tablet erected to perpetuate the names of men from the stationery, printing, and allied trades in Belfast who served, and those who fell, in the great war, was unveiled the Right Hon. Lord Justice Moore, and dedicated by the Dean of Belfast (Very Rev. T. G G. Collins, B.D.), in the unavoidable absence of the Bishop of Down. The special preacher was the Rev. Canon Manning, M.C., M.A., and the other clergy taking part in the service were Rev. G. R. C. Olden, M.A., and Rev. A. J. Johnston, M.A. The music included the anthem, "O blest are they" (Tschaikovsky), Mr. C. J. Brennan. Mus.Bac., presiding at the organ. There was a very large congregation, and the service was marked by a dignity in keeping with the solemn occasion. The tablet, which is the gift of Mr. Thomas McGowan, is composed of Swedish green and Italian rochetta marble, and occupies a position on the north wall. UNVEILING CEREMONY. Following the anthem the clergy, accompanied by Right Hon. Lord Justice Moore, proceeded to the north-east comer of the sacred building where the unveiling and dedication ceremony took place. Lord Justice Moore said before unveiling the memorial which his friend Mr. McGowan—a constant benefactor to the community—had presented to the Cathedral, he had been asked to say a few words. Their proceedings that day were tinged both with pride and sorrow. The stationery, printing, and allied trades, though smaller in number than many others of their guilds, had ever deservedly held a high place in the respect and esteem of the people of the province. The names of many well-known citizens would leap to their memory, and it was right that it should be so. "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war," and it was largely to the printer and the publisher and stationer that religion, science, and the learned professions had reached their present state of advancement. Could anyone imagine where knowledge and literature would stand today were the world still restricted to the painful manuscript of a toiling cleric? That memorial which they received in pride and gratitude was to tell those who came after them and those of unborn generations who would worship in that holy place, how in a time of national crisis the members of those peaceful trades abandoned their civil vocations, and as the inscription stated, "at the command of their Sovereign Lord the King" to the number of some four and a half hundreds joined "The goodliest fellowship of famous knights, Whereof this world holds record." It was a memorial to the patriotism which evoked their courage, and to the courage which responded to their patriotism. ‘‘Yea, let all good things await Him who cares not to be great, But as he saves or serves the State, Not once or twice in our tough island story The path of duty was the way to glory. ’* Their pride was for them; their sorrow was for those —nearly four score of them—who would never return. They were not forgotten. At that moment they stood in the spiritual presence of the gallant dead. They saluted them reverently as men who had shown the greatest of all love in that each laid down his life for his friend. Their land was not to be despaired of when the metal of her sturdy sons rang so true on the anvil of adversity. God, they believed, had taken their souls into His keeping; foreign shores contained their earthly bodies, but they would ever piously, reverently, and gratefully hold their memories green and fragrant. And for those who remained who professed and called themselves Christians they knew not what lay concealed in the womb of futurity. Kingdoms might wax and wane, empires might disappear, but they had the sure knowledge in the legend of the Stationers’ Company on the tablet, that "the Word of the Lord endureth for ever.”' https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000038/19220612/086/0006