The Armed Forces Memorial is a national

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

, dedicated to the 16,000 servicemen and women of the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

killed on duty or through terrorist action since after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It is within the

National Memorial Arboretum The National Memorial Arboretum is a British site of national remembrance at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire. Its objective is to honour the fallen, recognise service and sacrifice, and foster pride in the British Armed Forces and civilian ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

History

The creation of a national memorial for members of the Armed Forces killed on duty was announced by the

Secretary of State for Defence The secretary of state for defence, also referred to as the defence secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Ministry of Defence. The incumbent is a membe ...

in a statement in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

on 10 November 2000, to be funded by public subscription. An international competition was held for the design of the Memorial, which was won by Liam O'Connor Architects and Planning Consultants, with

Ian Rank-Broadley Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS (born 1952) is a British sculptor who has produced many acclaimed works, among which are several designs for British coinage and the memorial statue of Princess Diana at Kensington Palace in London unveiled on her 60th ...

, Sculptor. The project design team consisted of Liam O'Connor (architect), Christopher Barrett (project manager), Alan Baxter & Associates (structural & civil engineers), Christina Godiksen, Robert Rhodes, and Daniel Benson. Liam O'Connor also designed the

Commonwealth Memorial Gates The Memorial Gates are a war memorial located at the Hyde Park Corner end of Constitution Hill in London. Also known as the Commonwealth Memorial Gates, they commemorate the armed forces of the British Empire from five regions of the Indian sub ...

on Constitution Hill in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

conceived and executed the sculpture of the Memorial. He earlier sculpted the

effigy An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...

of Queen Elizabeth II which has appeared on coins in the UK and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

coins since 1998. The letter cutting was done by Richard Kindersley. The design of the Memorial was officially unveiled at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

on 6 April 2005. The Memorial was officially dedicated on 12 October 2007 in a ceremony presided by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

and attended by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony ...

and

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...

Rowan Williams Rowan Douglas Williams, Baron Williams of Oystermouth, (born 14 June 1950) is a Welsh Anglican bishop, theologian and poet. He was the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, a position he held from December 2002 to December 2012. Previously the Bish ...

. It was opened to the public on 29 October 2007. At the unveiling Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales said:

The magnificence of this new memorial will, at long last, provide a fitting recognition for all those killed on duty since the end of the Second World War. It does not differentiate between those killed in the heat of battle or on a training exercise, by terrorist action or on peace-keeping missions.

In addition to the Memorial in Staffordshire, a memorial without names will be added to the South Cloister of

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

, dedicated to members of the Armed Forces killed in conflict and the members of the

Royal Fleet Auxiliary The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RFA ensures the Royal Navy is supplied and supported by ...

and the Merchant Navy who died in conflict zones since the end of the Second World War; and rolls of honour will be displayed at the

St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...

(for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

) and the chapel of the

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...

(for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

), in addition to the existing Rolls of Honour for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

St Clement Danes St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. Although the first church on the site was reputedly founded in the 9th century by the Danes, the current ...

in the Strand.

Design

The Memorial cost £6 million to build, principally funded by sales of a commemorative Trafalgar coin sold by the

Royal Mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury and is un ...

, and grants from the Millennium Commission. The Memorial takes the form of an earth

tumulus A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or '' kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones ...

(mound), 100 metres in diameter. Inspiration for the Memorial came from "the ancient burial mounds of our ancestors … that recollects monuments like

Silbury Hill Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. At high, it is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound ...

and the mounds around

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connec ...

. The mound is surmounted by a

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building ...

circle, with openings to the east and west and an

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

at the eastern end. Within the circle are two straight stone walls, with bronze sculptures at their centres. The names of the 16,000 service personnel are carved into the Memorial's stone walls, with space for an additional 15,000 names to be added. The names of all those killed in combat, in training, on

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United ...

operations and on exercise are included. It includes the dead from operations in Palestine,

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic ...

, Malaya, the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

, and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

. The earliest qualifying date for casualties being listed on the memorial is 1 January 1948. This follows on from the closing date for commemoration by the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations m ...

of 31 December 1947, although the memorial also lists casualties of the 1947-48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (pre-independence Israel).
National Memorial Arboretum web page, hosted by Ministry of Defence (Veterans UK). The site contains an online roll of honour listing those inscribed. Names are grouped under year of death, within each year grouped under the force in which they served. The bronze sculptures are the work of

. The Stretcher Bearers sculpture shows a wounded serviceman borne by comrades, watched by grieving family. It represents the cost of armed conflict on those left behind. The Gates sculpture group shows the body of a fallen serviceman taken into the arms of his comrades, and a figure pointing through the Great Gates of Eternity to Paradise. For this work Rank-Broadley received the 2008 Marsh Award for Excellence in Public Sculpture. The structure is aligned so that at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the sun's rays will stream through the gap to illuminate the centre of the Memorial.

Location

The Memorial is located on a site at the

, at

Alrewas Alrewas ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Lichfield District of Staffordshire, England. Geography The village is beside the River Trent and about northeast of Lichfield. It is located southwest of Burton-on-Trent. The parish is bounded ...

near

Lichfield Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west o ...

, which opened in 2001, where there are already a number of Service-related memorials. A central location in the UK, outside London, was chosen deliberately to ensure that the memorial was accessible to all communities in the UK. File:National Memorial Arboretum - post 1945 04.jpg, The memorial viewed from the visitor centre File:National Memorial Arboretum - post 1945 01.jpg, Detail of the south side of the memorial File:National Memorial Arboretum - post 1945 02.jpg, Detail of the south side of the memorial File:National Memorial Arboretum - post 1945 03.jpg, Detail of the north side of the memorial

Notable commemoratees

Those whose names are inscribed on the memorial include (chronological order): * Ivor Gillett (1928–1950), GC recipient * Kenneth Muir (1912–1950), VC recipient *

Philip Curtis Lieutenant Philip Kenneth Edward Curtis VC (7 July 1926 – 23 April 1951) was a British Army officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Common ...

(1926–1951), VC recipient * John Quinton (1921–1951), GC recipient *

Terry Waters Terry Waters (14 December 1943 – 27 July 2020) was an Australian rules footballer who played with Collingwood in the Victorian Football League (VFL). Originally from Victorian Football Association (VFA) club Dandenong, Waters' transfer appl ...

(1929–1951), GC recipient * Archibald Wavell, 2nd Earl Wavell (1916–1953) * Robert Duncan ('Bob') Yule (1920–1953),

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

veteran pilot *

Charles Eric Rhodes Charles Eric Rhodes AM (3 April 1928 – 16 June 1955) was a British officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal famil ...

(1928–1955), Albert Medal recipient * Michael Paul Benner (1935–1957), GC recipient * Robert Curtis (1950–1971), first British soldier killed on

Operation Banner Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007, as part of the Troubles. It was the longest continuous deployment in British military history. The British Army was initial ...

* Vernon Erskine-Crum (1918–1971), army GOC Northern Ireland at start of Operation Banner *

Michael Willetts Michael Willetts, GC (13 August 1943 – 25 May 1971) was one of the first British soldiers to be killed during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and the recipient of a posthumous George Cross for his heroism in saving lives during the Provis ...

(1943–1971), GC recipient *

Talaiasi Labalaba Talaiasi Labalaba BEM (13 July 1942 – 19 July 1972) was a British-Fijian sergeant in the SAS who was involved in the Battle of Mirbat on 19 July 1972. Labalaba initially served in the British Army in the Royal Ulster Rifles. Battle of Mirbat ...

(1942–1972), Fijian-born SAS participant in

Battle of Mirbat The Battle of Mirbat (9 July, 1972) was an attack by Communist guerrillas targeting an Omani government position during the Dhofar Rebellion in the town of Mirbat, Oman. During the Dhofar Rebellion, Britain assisted the Omani government by sen ...

* Father Gerard Weston (1933–1972), army chaplain killed in IRA bombing *

Robert Nairac Captain Robert Laurence Nairac (31 August 1948 – 15 May 1977) was a British Army officer in the Grenadier Guards who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, south County Armagh, during an undercover operation and killed by the Provisional Irish ...

(1948–1977), GC recipient * Ian Corden-Lloyd (1938–1978) * Earl Mountbatten (1900–1979) * Herbert Westmacott (1952–1980), highest-ranking SAS officer killed on Operation Banner * Gavin Hamilton (1953–1982), highest ranking SAS soldier killed in the Falklands War * Herbert ('H') Jones (1940–1982) VC recipient * Ian McKay (1953–1982), VC recipient *

David Tinker ''A Message from the Falklands: The Life and Gallant Death of David Tinker'' is a book about Lieutenant David Hugh Russell Tinker (14 March 1957 – 12 June 1982), a Royal Navy supply officer who was killed in action during the Falklands War. H ...

(1957–1982), highest ranking Royal Navy officer killed in Falklands War * Alistair ('Al') Slater (1956–1984) * Stephen Saunders (1947–2000), assassinated British Military Attache,

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

* Jabron Hashmi (1982–2006), first British Muslim soldier killed in

Operation Herrick Operation Herrick was the codename under which all British operations in the War in Afghanistan were conducted from 2002 to the end of combat operations in 2014. It consisted of the British contribution to the NATO-led International Security Ass ...

, Afghanistan * Jonathan Hollingsworth (1971–2006), CGC recipient *

Bryan Budd Corporal Bryan James Budd, (16 July 1977 – 20 August 2006) was a British Army soldier and a Northern Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross (VC), the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Comm ...

(1977–2006), VC recipient * Mark Wright (1979–2006), GC recipient * Sarah Bryant (1981–2008), first British servicewoman killed in Afghanistan * Gary O'Donnell (1968–2008), bomb disposal expert, GM recipient *

Michael Lockett Sergeant Michael Christopher Lockett (11 June 1980 – 21 September 2009) was a British soldier, killed in action in Afghanistan aged 29. An improvised explosive device which he was investigating exploded injuring Lockett and two other sol ...

(1980–2009), first posthumous MC recipient since Falklands War *

Olaf Schmid Staff Sergeant Olaf Sean George Schmid, GC (11 June 1979 – 31 October 2009) was a British Army bomb disposal expert (Ammunition Technician) who was killed in action in the Afghanistan conflict. Schmid was posthumously awarded the George C ...

(1979–2009), GC recipient *

Rupert Thorneloe Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Stuart Michael Thorneloe, MBE (17 October 1969 – 1 July 2009) was a British Army officer who was killed in action on 1 July 2009 near Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. Thorneloe is the highest- ...

(1969–2009), highest ranking Army officer killed in action since Falklands War, in Afghanistan * Lisa Head (1981–2011), first female bomb disposal officer killed in action * James Ashworth (1989–2012), VC recipient * Stephen Healey (1982–2012), former Swansea City footballer

References

External links

The Armed Forces Memorial ProjectThe Armed Forces Memorial Sculpture
{{Authority control 2007 establishments in England 2007 sculptures British Armed Forces British military memorials and cemeteries Buildings and structures completed in 2007 Limestone sculptures in the United Kingdom Modernist architecture in England National Memorial Arboretum