MEMORIALS

Website: https://pssauk.org (The Public Statues & Sculptures Association)

The Albert Memorial

The ornate Albert Memorial (1876) commemorates Prince Albert, Queen Victoria s consort. Despite having no official constitutional position, had sought to defend the monarchy's interests whenever he could do so reasonably. He had been aided in this effort by the fact that Victoria bore him nine children. As a result, she had been physically indisposed for much of the time and therefore had been willing to allow him to act as her de facto deputy. The consort had travelled to Cambridge by train in order to admonish their son the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) for the way in which he had been conducting himself. During the journey Albert had contracted a cold. This had developed into being a case of double pneumonia and he had died.

From seven proffered designs the monarch chose one that had been created by Sir George Gilbert Scott. The Memorial was paid for jointly by a government grant and by a public subscription that was organised by the Royal Society for Arts. William Gladstone the prime minister delayed the project because he chose to quibble about the details of the contract under which it was performed.

The 14ft.-tall (5.4m.) prince holds in his hands a copy of the catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851.¹

Location: Kensington Gardens, SW7 2AP (red, yellow)

Website: www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/memorials-fountains-and-statues/the-albert-memorial

¹. The architect Sir William Tite M.P. had been prominent in the campaign that had prevented Scott from giving the new Foreign Office Building a Gothic fa ade. Tite had called for it to be given an Italianate one instead. However, Sir William was not opposed to either Scott or the Gothic style. In 1863 he publicly applauded the architect's use of it for the Albert Memorial.

The Artillery Regiment Memorial

The Artillery Memorial's inclusion of a full-size dead soldier - broke a taboo.

Location: Hyde Park Corner, W1J 7NT (red, pink)

Website: www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/128

The Cenotaph

In the centre of the northern end of Parliament Street - Whitehall's continuation - is the Cenotaph (1920). The structure commemorates the dead of the 1914-8 and 1939-45 World Wars. It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and was first erected in plaster as a saluting point for the Allied Victory March of 1919. It was then rebuilt in stone and unveiled on 11 November 1920. Lutyens gave it its name. He took the word from his mentor Getrude Jekyll who had used it for an area of garden at Munstead Wood, Surrey.

Location: Parliament Street, SW1A 2NS (purple, red)

Websites: www.cwgc.org (The Commonwealth War Graves Commission) www.twgpp.org (The Commonwealth War Graves Photographic Project) www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-is-the-cenotaph

Charing Cross

In 1290 Queen Eleanor of Castille, King Edward I's consort, died at Harby in Nottinghamshire. Her body was carried back to London so that it could be interred in Westminster Abbey. The queen had been immensely popular with ordinary people. Therefore, each night of the journey, while her corpse was lying in state, large crowds paid their respects.¹ The night before Queen Eleanor's body was received by the abbey, the procession rested upon what was to become the site of Charing Cross. The following year, the king commemorated his late wife by commissioning the erection of a stone cross at each of the sites where her corpse had been laid overnight.²

The Charing Cross cross fell victim to the English Civil Wars; it was demolished by the Puritans in 1647. In 1675 an equestrian statue of King Charles I (1633) was erected upon its site.

Location: Charing Cross, WC2N 5DX. The traffic island that stands between the square and the top of Whitehall. (purple, orange)

¹. The fact that your average medieval peasant does not get the chance to gawp at a dead queen every day may have played a part in compounding her posthumous popularity .

². Crosses were erected at: Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St Albans, Waltham, Cheapside, and Charing Cross.

The Charing Cross Monument

Both the Charing Cross Monument and The Charing Cross Hotel (1887) were designed by E.M. Barry.

Location: Charing Cross Railway Station, Strand, WC2N 5HS. The forecourt. (yellow, blue)

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Fabian Ware (1868-1949) was a school teacher-turned-educational reformer-turned-journalist. He spent a period living in South Africa where he fell under the influence of the imperialist Alfred Milner. He returned to Britain and became the editor of the Conservative-supporting Morning Post newspaper. He reinvigorated the publication. As war with Germany loomed, he called for universal conscription.

Following the conflict's outbreak, he was appointed to head the Red Cross's Mobile Ambulance Unit. Its tasks included searching for people who were missing and registering, marking, and maintaining war graves. A Francophile, he proved to be adept at dealing with French officialdom. The war required the dead to be buried upon an industrial scale. He played a leading role in the setting up of the Imperial War Graves Commission. It received its charter in 1917. He acted as the body's vice-president from its inception in 1917 until 1948 (the initial president being the Prince of Wales).

Ware ensured that the Commission was answerable to the Dominion governments as well as Whitehall. This enabled him to play them off against it and thereby retain the Commission's independence. Ware had to fend off a number of vested interests. The Anglican Church wanted crosses to be placed prominently, however, the sites included numerous Hindus and Sikhs, Muslims, and Jews. He ensured that religious symbolism while present was discrete. It was he who ensured that Rudyard Kipling became closely involved in the Commission and its work. Influential families wanted the corpses of their sons to be returned, he insisted that they remain with their comrades.

Location: 14 Wyndham Place, W1H 2PZ. Ware's home. (blue, purple)

Revolutionary Sod

The First World War and its immediate aftermath witnessed one of the principal socio-economic revolutions of Britain's history. A sign indicator of this was the manner in which belawned cemeteries for the burial of the slain were created. At Ware insistence, the graves were not located according to rank. The corpse of a private could be lain next to that of a colonel and vice-versa.

During the conflict officers were more likely to be killed than were members of the non-commissioned ranks. This was because the formers uniforms were distinctive and they were armed with revolvers rather than with rifles. Therefore, Axis snipers were able to identify them on the battlefield and shoot them.

Postman's Park

In 1887 G.F. Watts (1817-1904) wrote a letter to The Times. A memorial to the Jubilee that recognised dead everyday heroes. He had had the idea before. Had been clipping material from newspapers. In 1900 the Vestry of St Botolph's Aldersgate bought some extra land.

Watts financed the plaques. Initially, he worked with William de Morgan (1839-1917), another member of the Holland House set. In 1900 the ground opened. Four de Morgan plaques were put up.

The first commemorated Sarah Smith. In 1863 she had been a pantomime artist who died as a result of trying to extinguish a fellow pantomime artist's dress that was on fire.

In 1904 Watts died. His widow continued to support the project. It commemorated 54 deaths that occurred over the years 1863-1927. A factor in many of them was that people were more exposed to open water than they are now. The last one was put up in 1930. It was made by one of de Morgan's assistants.

In 2009 there were 53 to 61 people.

Website: www.wattsgalleryorg.uk

The Scott Memorial

Perhaps the most archetypal British explorer was Robert Falcon Scott. His disastrous 1911-2 expedition failed to return from the South Pole. This was because he regarded dogs as being man's best friend rather than as an unexciting alternative to mutton.

In terms of image-building Scott did have one advantage - he had married the sculptress, Kathleen Scott. The statue of Scott that stands in Waterloo Place was created by his widow.

Location: The Scott of The Antarctic Memorial, Waterloo Place, SW1Y 4AU (purple, yellow)

The Queen Victoria Memorial

The 82ft.-tall (25m.), 2300 ton marble Queen Victoria Memorial stands in front of Buckingham Palace.¹ It was created by Sir Thomas Brock, whom King George V knighted when the structure was formally unveiled in 1910.

Location: The Mall, SW1A 1AA (orange, blue)

See Also: ARCHES Marble Arch

¹. In the taxi trade's slang the Memorial is known as the Wedding Cake .

David Backhouse 2024