Walter Mendelsson

Wolfgang (Walter) Mendelsson was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw in Poland), in 1930. The family was Jewish and in 1938 Mendelsson and his elder brother were sent to England, where they had relations in Margate, under the auspices of Kindertransport. On the outbreak of war they were evacuated to an Aryan coal-mining household in Staffordshire and Walter won a scholarship to Edward VI Grammar School in Lichfield. He was happy in the Midlands and entered into its ethos with youthful enthusiasm; he developed a life-long interest in the town of Lichfield and the life and work of Samuel Johnson, and in Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club which, again, lasted a lifetime. After National Service in the army Mendelsson joined the family stationery business in the City, where he remained for thirty years until its enforced closure, when he moved to the Royal Institute of International Affairs as a finance officer, until retirement in 1997.

Mendelsson’s formative years in an Aryan family enabled him to pursue interests which might not have been open to him otherwise, though the horrors of the Holocaust, and its effect on his own life and that of his family, never left him and he was always mindful of his Hebraic heritage. From boyhood his great interest was history, but it was not primarily a bookish interest. He developed a wide knowledge of medieval armour and of church monuments, especially those depicting armoured figures, and in 1961 he joined the Monumental Brass Society (MBS). Elected to its council in 1971, he was appointed honorary secretary in 1974, an office he held with distinction for twenty years. He was an outstanding administrator and his devoted service was marked by appointment as vice-president in 1994.

A sister society to the MBS is the Church Monuments Society, which Mendelsson helped to found in 1978. His support and influence were vital in getting the new society off to a propitious start and he went on to serve two three-year terms on its council and as assistant treasurer until his death. Conservation was an important aspect of the Church Monuments Society’s work and Mendelsson’s pressure for funds to achieve this was unmatched.

Alabasters were perhaps the monuments he held most dear, after brasses, and those at Abergavenny, Harewood and Ryther owe their present state of near perfection to his efforts. He built up a remarkable library and it gave him great pleasure to share his knowledge with colleagues, though he never published. Sadly, Mendelsson’s retirement was short and dogged by failing health. Nevertheless, in addition to his ecclesiastical work, he devoted much time and energy lecturing to schools and colleges for the Spiro Institute for the Study of Jewish History. He died on 28 January 2000.