The Celtic Cross that stands in the grounds of Dilworth School is one of the most remarkable works of public art in Auckland - and the storyvbehind it is equally extraordinary. We sat down with Staniland West (Stan), the Old Boy who drove the project from vision to reality, to hear the full story of how and why the Dilworth Cross came about.
The Centennial Gift
In 1994, the Dilworth Trust marked its centenary - one hundred years since James Dilworth’s death on 23 December 1894. The Dilworth Old Boys’ Association (DOBA) resolved to mark the occasion with a permanent gift. It was Stan who, fired up by his SAS motto of ‘who dares wins’, stood up at an Old Boys dinner and challenged the group to think bigger than a swimming pool. The idea that emerged was to ncreate a replica of the Donaghmore Cross - a celebrated Celtic High Cross from the County Tyrone town of Dungannon where James Dilworth grew up, and a Cross so significant to him that it appears in his coat of arms.
The People Who Made It Happen
Stan commissioned sculptor Steve Woodward and stonemason Bruce Trethewey to bring the vision to life. In 1992 they travelled to Ireland, where an incredible chance encounter with Professor Fergus O’Farrell – an expert in Celtic High Crosses who happened to be at a Dublin cemetery when Steve and Bruce were studying a cross there – proved to be the turning point. Through O’Farrell’s guidance, Woodward developed his design. Eighteen tonnes of black Irish limestone was quarried in County Laois, shipped to Auckland, and carved over two years into a twelve-tonne sculpture standing 6.2 metres tall. It was erected on 21 September 1994.
Stan was visibly moved as he spoke of his personal reasons for taking on such a monumental project.
“It’s not often you can give something back. Dilworth made me who I am. Without that opportunity, I wouldn’t have succeeded the way I have. I felt I needed to give something back - and this was my way of doing that.”
Staniland West, Project Director, Dilworth Cross
The Cross faces East-West in the Celtic tradition, with its four faces richly carved with Old and New Testament scenes, Celtic knotwork, and symbols drawn from the Book of Kells. Its location was carefully determined by School Architect Brian Dodd, placed at the intersection of axes representing Religion, Scholarship, and Art.
A Lasting Tribute
Buildings change and develop over time. The Dilworth Cross will remain as it is, forever - a mark of gratitude from those who benefited from the Founder’s extraordinary generosity, and a reminder to every student who passes it, of the man and his wife, Isabella Dilworth, who made their education possible. We are deeply grateful to Staniland West for his vision, his tenacity, and his refusal to take no for an answer in bringing the Dilworth Cross to life, and for so generously sharing its story with us.
To mark a century past, a presence for the future.
We celebrate the legacy of James and Isabella Dilworth.