King's Somborne War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the village of

King's Somborne King's Somborne is a village in Hampshire, England. The village lies on the edge of the valley of the River Test. Location King's Somborne is a large parish covers , of which are covered by water. Most of the ground is low-lying, with a high poi ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

in southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The memorial was designed by

Sir Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...

and unveiled in 1921; it is a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

Background

In the aftermath of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was the architect

, described by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed

the Cenotaph The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth dead of the First World War, was rededicated in 19 ...

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...

in London, which became the focus for the national

Remembrance Sunday Remembrance Sunday is held in the United Kingdom as a day to commemorate the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts. It is held on the second Sunday in Nov ...

commemorations, as well as the

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the Stone of Remembrance which appears in all large

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 ...

cemeteries and in several of Lutyens's civic war memorials. The King's Somborne memorial is one of fifteen War Crosses by Lutyens, all sharing a broadly similar design; another, Stockbridge War Memorial, is situated in the nearby town of Stockbridge. Prior to the outbreak of war, Lutyens established his reputation designing luxurious country houses for wealthy clients. Like many of his war memorials, the commission for King's Somborne originated with a pre-war client. Lutyens designed

Marshcourt Marshcourt, also spelled Marsh Court, is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Marsh Court, near Stockbridge, Hampshire, England. It is constructed from quarried chalk. Designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens between 1901 and 190 ...

, a country house near Stockbridge, for Herbert Johnson at the turn of the twentieth century; during the First World War, Johnson and his wife Violet ran a 60-bed military hospital out of Marshcourt and after the Armistice, Johnson was adamant that King's Somborne and Stockbridge should both have a memorial to the war dead.

Inception

It was Johnson, with the assistance of the local vicar, who chaired the first public meeting in King's Somborne to discuss the village's commemorations, held in the village schoolhouse in February 1919. Several letters containing ideas for the form of the memorial were read out, and several more were proposed during the meeting, including a wayside cross and a parish hall.Skelton, pp. 80–81. The meeting agreed to hold a consultation to establish how much the residents of the village would be willing to contribute, and to form a large committee to decide on the form; Johnson pledged a donation of £100. When the committee reported back, its decision was to commission a Lutyens War Cross, along with a bronze tablet in the nearby Church of St Peter and St Paul to bear the names of the dead.

History and design

The cross stands at the junction of Romsey Road (the

A3057 road List of A roads in zone 3 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...

) and Church Road in the centre of King's Somborne. It is in Portland stone, consisting of a tapering, lozenge-shaped shaft with short arms moulded close to the top. It sits on a three-tiered plinth of stone blocks which itself sits on a narrow coved plinth which splays upwards from the bottom to provide a seat at the foot of the cross. The plinth rests on base of three shallow stone steps. On the front of the plinth is the inscription: "TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY OF THE MEN OF KINGS SOMBORNE / MCM XIV + MCM XIX / MCM XXXIX + MCM XLV" and on the back: "THANKS BE TO GOD WHO GIVETH US THE VICTORY". The names of the fallen from both world wars are inscribed below the dedication around the plinth; the inscriptions related to the Second World War were added at a later date. The memorial was unveiled by Rear Admiral Sir Godfrey Paine on 27 March (Easter Sunday) 1921. The Portland stone memorial, being a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, gradually weathered to the point that the legibility of the names was affected. In the late 20th century, the names were re-cut and filled with black paint to preserve their legibility. After Violet Johnson's death in 1923, Lutyens designed a memorial cross to her, which was placed in Winton Hill Cemetery in Stockbridge, and which is today a grade II listed building. King's Somborne War Memorial was designated a grade II

on 7 February 1986. In November 2015, as part of the commemorations of the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens's war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all of his free-standing memorials in England were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...

list entries were updated and expanded.

References

* {{Reflist World War I memorials in England World War II memorials in England Monuments and memorials in Hampshire Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire Grade II listed monuments and memorials Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Works of Edwin Lutyens in England War memorials by Edwin Lutyens Military history of Hampshire