Examples of Daisy's Work

The Battle of Britain Roll

Daisy designed, lettered, and illuminated the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour for Westminster Abbey chapel. It contains the names of the 1,497 pilots and aircrew killed or mortally wounded during the Battle of Britain. This work is now regarded as a treasured piece of Art and a National Treasure, kept safely in Westminster Abbey.


Daisy with the completed Battle of Britain Roll of Honour in her Kensington Studio.


The Roll of Honour seen beside the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey.


Each year during Battle of Britain Sunday, on the third Sunday in September, the Roll of Honour is paraded around the abbey during the service.
She started work on the book in 1943 and as the book grew in size she had more and more difficulty trying to move it around and keep it safe from the German bombs that were falling on London.

Whilst working on the roll of honour she broke her ankle and for a time had to be propped up at her board with her leg in a plaster cast.

Because of the accident she took time off from teaching at the Hammersmith School of Building & Arts and Crafts, and devoted all of her time to complete the roll of honour.

When the Battle of Britain Roll of Honour was unveiled to the nation, Daisy's students wrote the following appreciation of the teacher they adored:


As a calligrapher, she must rank as one of the few first class, not merely of modern times but of all time. Her alphabets, though they are based on sound tradition as all good alphabets must be, have an unusual liveliness, beauty and proportion which reflect the qualities of their creator.

Her style, inspiration and methods of work are essentially her own. Her productions are always original and beautiful and are at once the joy and despair of her contemporary calligraphers. Perfect taste, complete co-ordination between brain and hand, sure judgement and untiring energy, combine in her with knowledge and inspiration to produce works of art of the highest class.

To those unskilled in calligraphy, with no knowledge of the traditions and intricacies of the craft, her work is a revelation of beauty and under her hand our alphabet takes on a new meaning. Her friend Eric Gill described her work as "that intense concentration upon precise perfection. . . which is genius."
 

 
The H.M.S. Hood Memorial Book

Daisy with the H.M.S. Hood Memorial Book in Boldre Church. Courtesy of Len Perry.
One of Daisy's most well-known works, which can be seen in the Church of St John the Baptist, Boldre in the New Forest, commemorates the crew of the Admiral-class battle cruiser H.M.S. Hood which sank on 24th May, 1941.

H.M.S. Hood and the King George V class battleship, H.M.S. Prince of Wales were sent to intercept the German battleship Bismarck, but within three minutes of their encounter, H.M.S. Hood was struck by several German shells and sunk with the loss of 1,418 lives. There were only 3 survivors.

Boldre church has a small H.M.S. Hood chapel which contains a painting of H.M.S. Hood, a small stained-glass window and the encased Hood Memorial Book by Daisy Alcock.

Each year a service of remembrance for those who lost their lives on the Hood is held at the church in the middle of May.


The front page of the memorial book.


The Church of St John the Baptist, Boldre.

 
The Metropolitan Police Roll of Honour

Another of Daisy's projects was the Metropolitan Police Roll of Honour that commemorates the police officers who lost their lives in the First World War. The following three illustrations are trial pages for the book.

 


A decorative panel called "The Faun" that was produced by Daisy.

 


A page from a song book.

 
Soon after the death of King George VI in 1952, Daisy was commissioned by her friends and former pupils to inscribe three verses of the National Anthem on Vellum in honour of the late King.

Her design, which is now housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, incorporates two cherubs gloriously playing the Anthem tune on trumpet and drum, soaring high above Buckingham Palace.

It was included in an exhibition commemorating 75 years of the Society of Scribes & Illuminators.
 

 


A page from one of Daisy's books.

 


An Easter card produced by Daisy which includes an advert for her services.

 
The Order of Ministration for the Public Baptism of Infants

Holy Trinity Church at Heath Town was Daisy's local church. On permanent display in the church in a glass-topped case is a fine example of her work that is dedicated to her father. The case, which holds her 'Order of Ministration for the Public Baptism of Infants' has her father's name and date of birth and death carved along the top edge.


The glass-topped case in the church.


The ornate lettering on the front of the Order of Ministration for the Public Baptism of Infants.


One of the pages from the book.


Another page from the book.


   
Return to
Obituary
  Return to
the contents
  Proceed to
Monuments