The Glorious Window
The stained-glass window which you can see in the East wall behind the alter and choir stalls is dedicated as a memorial to Lieutenant Commander William Hugh Parkin and 1205 other people who died with him aboard a British warship, the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious on the 8th of June 1940, during the Second World War. It was unveiled in January 1948 and replaced the original window destroyed by a World War 2 bomb blast. Designed by Francis Spear, who designed over 300 stained glass windows, including 6 windows installed in cathedrals around the country, the theme of this window is 'The Lord in Glory'.
William Parkin was the son of a Mr and Mrs Whitehead, who paid for the window. They lived just down the road from Holy Cross in Church Lane and were well known in the village. Mr Whitehead was at one time the church warden at Holy Cross.
Their son William was a trained pilot who served on aircraft carriers before he retired in 1934, only to be called back to service 1939, and was posted to HMS Glorious.
Of the window design: The central figure is Jesus seated on a throne and the earth is under his feet, saying the words: I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet which shows that he is at the start and end of all time. Above Jesus you will also see objects from the Easter story; the crown of thorns, the spear, nails and other items.
On either side of the window there are the two patron saints of the armed forces. Top left hand side is St George, with a red cross on his shield, the patron saint of soldiers. Bottom right, with the sword, is St Michael who is patron saint of the Royal Air Force.
Above St Michael is St Stephen, who represents the people who were not in the armed forces, but nonetheless lost their lives serving their country in different ways during World War 2.
Finally, bottom left, below St George is St Nicholas holding the ship HMS Glorious and below him are the ‘rose” crest of HMS Glorious and the family crest of the Parkin family. Below that is an inscription of the dedication and on the right hand opposite side are the crests of Canterbury and the Invicta horse representing the county of Kent.
Of HMS Glorious: she was one of the British warships sent to provide cover and protection whilst soldiers were evacuated from Narvik after the German army invaded Norway. At 4:30pm on 8th June, 1940, the three British ships were spotted by two German battle cruisers and the German boats quickly opened fire. HMS Ardent was soon sunk but HMS Acasta continued to provide brave support to HMS Glorious. One of her torpedoes, fired from 6 miles away, managed to cause significant damage to one of the German ships. However, just after 6pm, the two remaining British ships could hold out no longer and both were destroyed.
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At the end of the fighting, there was only one person from the Acasta who had survived and less than 40 people from HMS Glorious.​