Rhodes Memorial Clock Tower, Wilmslow Road, Didsbury

In 1910 a Portland stone memorial clocktower was erected outside Didsbury station to commemorate John Milson Rhodes, a local philanthropist who had died in 1909 as a result of a self-administer dose of strychnine for medical purposes. He was remembered on the tower by a bronze plaque bearing his portrait and the memorial inscription to " A Friend of Humanity." Among the subscribers to the memorial was the former prime minister, A. J. Balfour. It is the first known work of E Bower Norris, the son of James Higginbotham Norris, Registrar of Births and Deaths, who was a local resident at the time.

THE DR RHODES MEMORIAL - The clock tower which is to be erected in Wilmslow Road, opposite Didsbury Station, to remind future generations of the great and good work done by the late Dr. J. M. Rhodes will shortly be put in hand. The hon. secretaries, Messrs. Thomas Spann and J. T. Seale announce that only about £100 is now required to complete the cost of the memorial. [Manchester Evening News - Saturday 23 July 1910 page 6]

THE LATE DR. J. M. RHODES: MEMORIAL UNVEILED AT DIDSBURY - On Saturday afternoon many people attended the unveiling of a memorial clock-tower set up in Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, close to the railway station, to the memory of the late Dr. J. Milson Rhodes. The memorial has been erected by public subscription at a cost of £360, and it is in the form of a short stone tower surmounted by four-faced clock and flanked with drinking fountains—the design of Mr. E. B. Norris. 

Reference    Manchester Evening News - Saturday 23 July 1910 page 6
Reference    Manchester Guardian 30 January 1911 page 14