Imperial 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 mil ...
erected a series of memorial tablets in French and Belgian cathedrals to commemorate the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
dead 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 ...
. The tablets were erected in towns in which British Army or Empire troops had been quartered.
The prototype Commission memorial tablet, placed in
in 1923 alongside tablets previously erected to other Empire troops, was dedicated to the 600,000 dead of Britain and Ireland. The subsequent design of the Commission's tablet brought together the British Royal Coat of Arms with those of India and the imperial dominions: South Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Newfoundland. The tablet's inscription, written by
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
, referred to the "million dead" of the Empire. Produced by Reginald Hallward to a design by architect H. P. Cart de Lafontaine, the tablets were erected in twenty-eight cathedrals and churches, twenty-three in France and five in Belgium, with the bilingual inscriptions in each country in English and French, and English and Latin respectively. They were unveiled by a range of dignitaries, including members of the royal family, diplomats, politicians, and British Army generals who had commanded troops on the Western Front.
A tablet of the same design, but with an inscription referring to the dead buried in the "lands of our Allies", was unveiled in
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 ...
in 1926 and later installed in what became St George's Chapel. Replicas or copies of the Westminster Abbey tablet were distributed to churches or cathedrals in Hamilton and Vancouver in Canada, and in Baghdad in Iraq. Copies or reproductions are located at the museum at
Delville Wood
The Battle of Delville Wood was a series of engagements in the 1916 Battle of the Somme in the First World War, between the armies of the German Empire and the British Empire. Delville Wood , was a thick tangle of trees, chiefly beech and ...
in France, in Fremantle, Australia, and in Liverpool, UK. Versions of the prototype Amiens tablet and the standard tablet used in France are held at the headquarters of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, UK.
Origin and design
The
Imperial 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 mil ...
had been established by Royal Charter in 1917. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1918 at the end of the First World War, the Commission continued developing its plans to commemorate the war dead of both the British Army and troops from the Empire and its Dominions. The Commission had responsibility for war graves, but it was less clear who had responsibility for memorials. The Commission drew a distinction between individual commemoration of the dead and more general monuments such as battle exploits and regimental memorials. These latter were to be dealt with by a Battle Exploits Memorial Committee established in 1918 by the British Army's Adjutant-General. By 1919, a Cabinet-level desire for memorials to the army as a whole led to the establishment of the National Battlefield Memorials Committee, chaired by the Earl of Midleton.
As plans progressed, it became apparent that the proposals for national battlefield memorials would overlap with those made by the Commission for memorials to the missing. In 1921, rather than fund two separate schemes, the responsibility for general war memorials was transferred from the National Battlefield Memorials Committee to the Imperial War Graves Commission. One of the proposals taken up from the Committee and acted upon by the Commission was the recommendation that commemorative tablets be "erected in French cathedrals which had particular associations with British troops during the war". The Commission's committee to co-ordinate this consisted of Lieutenant General Sir
George Macdonogh
Lieutenant-General Sir George Mark Watson Macdonogh (4 March 1865 – 10 July 1942) was a British Army general officer. After early service in the Royal Engineers he became a staff officer prior to the outbreak of the First World War. His main r ...
, Sir Herbert Creedy (Secretary to the War Office), the Commission's literary advisor
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
, and the Commission's founder and vice-chairman
Fabian Ware
Major-General Sir Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware (17 June 186928 April 1949) was a British educator, journalist, and the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). He also served as D ...
. The design was by Commission architect H. P. Cart de Lafontaine, with the tablets produced by sculptor Reginald Hallward.
Cart de Lafontaine spoke fluent French, and in addition to designing the tablets he negotiated with the cathedral authorities. The scheme was expanded to include cathedrals in Belgium as well. In some cases, the cathedrals had been badly damaged, and the placement of tablets was delayed until reconstruction had been completed. Other considerations included the placement of the tablet in the available space within the cathedrals, with some using a horizontal design instead of a vertical one. The prototype tablet, produced for
, featured the Royal Coat of Arms and an inscription that referred to the armies of Great Britain and Ireland.
All the later Commission tablets used a design that differed from the prototype tablet in that it brought together elements from all the
dominion
The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire.
"Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...
s and India. This standard design, following consultations with the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...
, had the Royal Coat of Arms surrounded by the
shields
A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...
of the coats of arms of the five Dominions: the
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...
, the
Commonwealth of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
, the
Dominion of New Zealand
The Dominion of New Zealand was the historical successor to the Colony of New Zealand. It was a constitutional monarchy with a high level of self-government within the British Empire.
New Zealand became a separate British Crown colony in 184 ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
Dominion of Newfoundland
Newfoundland was a British dominion in eastern North America, today the modern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was established on 26 September 1907, and confirmed by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westmi ...
. The
Indian Empire
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
was represented by the insignia of the
Order of the Star of India
The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:
# Knight Grand Commander (GCSI)
# Knight Commander ( KCSI)
# Companion ( CSI)
No appointments ...
and its motto 'Heaven's light our guide'. Some designs of the tablet referred to 'The United Kingdom', while others referred to 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'. The text within the main design includes the mottoes used in the Royal Coat of Arms:
Honi soit qui mal y pense
(, , ) is a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who thinks evil of it" It is ...
and
Dieu et mon droit
(, fro, Deu et mon droit), which means "God and my right", is the motto of the monarch of the United Kingdom. It appears on a scroll beneath the shield of the version of the coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The motto is said to have first ...
. The material used was gilded and coloured
gesso
Gesso (; "chalk", from the la, gypsum, from el, γύψος) is a white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum, pigment, or any combination of these. It is used in painting as a preparation for any number of substrates suc ...
set in a stone surround. Other design elements included a banded laurel-like border with carved roses in each corner and one at bottom centre. Some designs differed in the placement of the names of the dominions, and some varied in the colours used. The Westminster tablet is 5 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 10 inches (177.8 cm by 86.36 cm). The Ypres tablet is 266 cm by 127 cm.
File:Arms of Canada (1921–1957) (shield).svg,
Arms of Canada
The Arms of Canada (french: Armoiries du Canada, links=no), also known as the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada (french: armoiries royales du Canada, links=no) or formally as the Arms of His Majesty the King in Right of Canada (french: Armoiries de Sa M ...
The following table lists the known locations, unveiling dates and other details for the Commission's cathedral and church tablets in France, Belgium and other countries between 1923 and 1936.
Amiens Cathedral tablets
When the Commission took up the memorial tablet proposal from the National Battlefield Memorials Committee, several tablets had already been unveiled in Amiens Cathedral to the memory of Dominion forces that had participated in the
Somme Offensive
The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...
or in later battles in the area. Amiens is the capital of the département of the Somme, and the 13th-century
is the largest in Europe. This led to many requests after the war for permission to erect memorials there. Eleven such memorials are listed in ''The Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields'', all located near the cathedral's south door. Six of them commemorate British or Dominion troops, including the prototype Commission tablet.
The first of these six memorials was erected for the
Royal Canadian Dragoons
The Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) is the senior armoured regiment of the Canadian Army by precedence. It is one of three armoured regiments in the Regular Force and forms part of the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps.
The colonel-in-chief of The RC ...
and was dedicated on 12 April 1919 by the Archbishop of Amiens. This was followed by a tablet to the Australian Imperial Force, unveiled on 7 November 1920 by Marshal
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general and military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during the First World War. An aggressive, even reckless commander at the First Marne, Flanders and Art ...
in the presence of the Australian High Commissioner
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher (29 August 186222 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Australia – from 1908 to 1909, from 1910 to 1913, and from 1914 to 1915. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party ...
. The erection of a tablet to South African forces, reported in December 1920, had been suggested by the late Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa
Louis Botha
Louis Botha (; 27 September 1862 – 27 August 1919) was a South African politician who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa – the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, ...
. A tablet to the forces of Newfoundland was unveiled on 27 August 1922 by Sir
Richard Squires
Sir Richard Anderson Squires KCMG (January 18, 1880 – March 26, 1940) was the Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1919 to 1923 and from 1928 to 1932.
As prime minister, Squires attempted to reform Newfoundland's fishing industry, but failed at ...
the Prime Minister of Newfoundland. The aforementioned prototype Commission tablet was unveiled on 9 July 1923 by
Prince Arthur Prince Arthur may refer to:
* Arthur I, Duke of Brittany (1187-1203), nephew and possible heir of Richard I of England
* Arthur, Prince of Wales (1486–1502), eldest son Henry VII of England
* Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (1850 ...
, the Duke of Connaught and wartime Governor-General of Canada. The final tablet, to the soldiers of the
New Zealand Division
The New Zealand Division was an infantry division of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force raised for service in the First World War. It was formed in Egypt in early 1916 when the New Zealand and Australian Division was renamed after the detachmen ...
, was unveiled on 16 July 1923 by
Lord Liverpool
Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...
, wartime Governor (later Governor-General) of New Zealand, in the presence of the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Allen.
The inscription uses the abbreviation A.M.D.G. for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, and in addition to the Somme battles of 1916 refers to the defence of Amiens during the German spring offensive, and the Battle of Amiens and the
Hundred Days Offensive
The Hundred Days Offensive (8 August to 11 November 1918) was a series of massive Allies of World War I, Allied offensives that ended the First World War. Beginning with the Battle of Amiens (1918), Battle of Amiens (8–12 August) on the Wester ...
that led to the Armistice in 1918. A version of the Amiens tablet is displayed at the headquarters of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, UK.
The form of the wording to be used on the tablets was the subject of correspondence between Commission officials and advisors. One such letter, between Kipling and Ware was written on 8 May 1923, with Kipling giving his thoughts on the wording proposed for the Notre Dame tablet (unveiled the following year) in light of the wording being used for the Amiens tablet (unveiled two months after this letter was written):
Of course, "diocese", in this connection, is absurd. It will have to be "France". Otherwise I don't see much wrong with the wording, except that, it seems to me, "dead", in place of "men", is the ''clou''. The difficulty is the supplementary clause, and the word "especially", which, I fear, can't be avoided. I prefer "honoured" or "enduring" to "sacred", but there may be good reason for keeping to the last. I think that the word "here" after "rest", gives a touch of intimacy between the two lands.
Kipling went on to suggest a draft form of the inscription that was eventually used (with further changes) on the Notre Dame tablet.
File:WWI memorial tablet to Canadian forces in Amiens Cathedral.JPG, Canada Canadian tablet:
File:WWI memorial tablet to South African forces in Amiens Cathedral.JPG, South Africa South African tablet:
File:WWI memorial tablet to New Zealand forces in Amiens Cathedral.JPG, New Zealand New Zealand tablet:
File:WWI memorial tablet to Newfoundland forces in Amiens Cathedral.JPG, Newfoundland Newfoundland tablet:
Joshua 24–27
Josué 24–27
File:WWI memorial tablet to Australian forces in Amiens Cathedral.JPG, Australia Australian tablet:
Tablets in France
The first standard tablet to be unveiled in France was that erected in
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris. The cathedral, dedicated to the ...
. It was unveiled on 7 July 1924 by the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
(the future Edward VIII) in his role as President of the Imperial War Graves Commission. French dignitaries present included the French President
Gaston Doumergue
Pierre Paul Henri Gaston Doumergue (; 1 August 1863 in Aigues-Vives, Gard18 June 1937 in Aigues-Vives) was a French politician of the Third Republic. He served as President of France from 13 June 1924 to 13 June 1931.
Biography
Doumergue ca ...
, French Minister for War
Charles Nollet
Charles Marie Edouard Nollet was a French general and government minister, chairman of the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control from 1919 to 1924, and Minister of War 1924–1925.
Nollet was born 29 January 1865 at Marseille and died in ...
, Military Governor of Paris Henri Gouraud, and generals Castelnau and Mangin. The tablet was shrouded in a Union flag, and following the unveiling the Prince handed a message to the President of France from King George V.
A succession of tablets of the same or similar design to the one erected in Paris were unveiled in French cathedrals, the majority in 1925, 1926 and 1927. One of those reported on at greater length in ''The Times'' was the service and ceremony for the tablet placed in
Rouen Cathedral
Rouen Cathedral (french: Cathédrale primatiale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Rouen) is a Roman Catholic church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each in ...
on the north wall of the chapel to
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
. This tablet, shrouded by a Union flag but framed in bronze rather than marble, was unveiled on 25 February 1925 by General
Nevil Macready
General Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready, 1st Baronet, (7 May 1862 – 9 January 1946), known affectionately as Make-Ready (close to the correct pronunciation of his name), was a British Army officer. He served in senior staff appointments in ...
representing the Imperial War Graves Commission. The address by the Archbishop of Rouen spoke of the historical connections between Normandy and England, and Macready's unveiling speech in French concluded: "Glory to Joan of Arc! Glory to our dead!" Wreaths were laid under the Empire tablet and also at the memorial elsewhere in the cathedral to those of Rouen who fell in the war.
The tablet at
Arras Cathedral
Arras Cathedral (French: ''Cathédrale Notre-Dame-et-Saint-Vaast d'Arras'') is the Catholic church in the city of Arras, France. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishops of Arras.
History
The original cathedral of Arras, constructed between 1030 a ...
, the latest to be erected, was unveiled on 10 May 1936 by the Secretary of State for War
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian.
First elected to Parliament in 19 ...
, present in his role as Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission. The erection of this tablet had been delayed by the restoration of the cathedral, which had been completed a few months earlier. Those present at this unveiling included representatives of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Australia and India, together with the British ambassador to France George Clerk, Admiral Sir Morgan Singer, Lieutenant-General Sir
George Macdonogh
Lieutenant-General Sir George Mark Watson Macdonogh (4 March 1865 – 10 July 1942) was a British Army general officer. After early service in the Royal Engineers he became a staff officer prior to the outbreak of the First World War. His main r ...
, and Commission architect Sir
Reginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield (20 December 1856 – 27 December 1942) was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.
Early life and career
Blomfield was born at Bow rectory in Devon, w ...
. The French government was represented by Minister of Pensions René Besse, with General Schweissgut representing the French Minister of War. The Vicar-General represented the Bishop of Arras. Addresses were made by Duff Cooper, the Vicar-General and Fabian Ware. Duff Cooper, as Macready had at Rouen 11 years earlier, made reference to Joan of Arc, going on to state that the Commission had laid wreaths in the chapel of
Menin Gate
The Menin Gate ( nl, Menenpoort), officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves a ...
in Ypres, one of the Commission's main memorials to the missing. The Menin Gate was unveiled by
Lord Plumer
Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took command ...
, while
Earl Haig
Earl Haig is a title in the peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. During the First World War, he served as commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in France and Be ...
was asked to unveil the Brussels tablet to the Empire's dead. Those present at the Brussels ceremony included the Belgian Prime Minister
Henri Jaspar
Henri Jaspar (28 July 1870 – 15 February 1939) was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.
Jaspar was born in Schaerbeek and trained as a lawyer. He represented Liège as a Catholic in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 1919 until ...
, the Belgian Minister of Justice
Paul Hymans
Paul Louis Adrien Henri Hymans (23 March 1865 – 8 March 1941), was a Belgian politician associated with the Liberal Party. He was the second president of the League of Nations and served again as its president in 1932–1933.
Life
Hymans was ...
, the Minister of National Defence
Charles de Broqueville
Charles Marie Pierre Albert, 1st Count de Broqueville (4 December 1860 – 5 September 1940) was the prime minister of Belgium, serving during World War I.
Before 1914
Charles de Broqueville was born into an old noble family with its roots in F ...
(Belgian Prime Minister during the war), and the heir to the Belgian throne and future Leopold III, the Prince of Brabant. The British dignitaries accompanying Earl Haig included the British ambassador to Belgium George Dixon Grahame, British generals
Hubert Gough
General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough ( ; 12 August 1870 – 18 March 1963) was a senior officer in the British Army in the First World War. A favourite of the British Commander-in-Chief, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, he experienced a meteoric ...
and
George Macdonogh
Lieutenant-General Sir George Mark Watson Macdonogh (4 March 1865 – 10 July 1942) was a British Army general officer. After early service in the Royal Engineers he became a staff officer prior to the outbreak of the First World War. His main r ...
, and the Commission's vice-chairman
Fabian Ware
Major-General Sir Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware (17 June 186928 April 1949) was a British educator, journalist, and the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). He also served as D ...
. At the reception at the town hall following the unveiling, Haig delivered a speech in French, reported in ''The Times'', paying tribute to the Empire's dead and to the resistance by the Belgian forces at the
Battle of Liège
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
to the invading German armies. A further two tablets were unveiled in Belgium, at Antwerp in 1928 and at Ypres in 1931, the latter delayed by the rebuilding of St Martin's Cathedral.
The inscriptions on the tablets in Belgium are in English and Latin, a decision that was taken in consultation with the Belgian ecclesiastical authorities, with Latin used as an alternative to the two official languages of the country. The Latin text is not a direct translation of the English text, with the Latin wording discussed in correspondence in 1925 between Fabian Ware and Sir M. Sadler.
Westminster Abbey tablet
The tablet produced for
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 ...
was similar in design to those erected in Belgium and France, but with a different inscription. The unveiling on 19 October 1926 was attended by the Prime Ministers of the Dominions, who were present in London for the Imperial Conference of 1926. The tablet, shrouded in a Union flag, was displayed in the nave of the Abbey, on a platform on the west side of the choir arch. The report in ''The Times'' stated that it was placed on a "specially designed screen covered with a fine brocade of blue, gold, and silver." A large number of dignitaries were present, while the public was limited to the available space remaining in the nave. Present were members of the British Cabinet, members of the Imperial War Graves Commission, Army, Navy and Air Force officers and commanders, representatives of associations such as the British Legion, the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
and St Dunstan's, along with many Dominion representatives. In the front row were veterans who had been blinded during the war.
Following protocol, the
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
arrived last and was received at the West Door of the Abbey by the Dean of Westminster
William Foxley Norris
William Foxley Norris (4 February 1859 – 28 September 1937) was Dean of York between 1917 and 1925 and of Westminster from then until his death in 1937.
Born into a clerical family, he was educated at Charterhouse and Trinity College, ...
, the Prime Minister
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...
, the Secretary of State for India
Lord Birkenhead
Earl of Birkenhead was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the noted lawyer and Conservative politician F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to ...
, the Secretary of State for the Colonies and for Dominion Affairs
Leo Amery
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, ...
, the Secretary of State for War and Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission Sir
Laming Worthington-Evans
Sir Worthington Laming Worthington-Evans, 1st Baronet, (23 August 1868 – 14 February 1931) was a British Conservative politician.
Background and education
Born Laming Evans, he was the son of Worthington Evans and Susanah Laming. He assumed t ...
, Prime Minister of Newfoundland
Walter Stanley Monroe
Walter Stanley Monroe (May 14, 1871 – October 6, 1952) was a businessman and conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Newfoundland from 1924 to 1928 as leader of the Liberal-Conservative Progressive Party.
He was born in Irel ...
, Prime Minister of New Zealand
Gordon Coates
Joseph Gordon Coates (3 February 1878 – 27 May 1943) served as the 21st prime minister of New Zealand from 1925 to 1928. He was the third successive Reform prime minister since 1912.
Born in rural Northland, Coates grew up on a cattle run ...
, Prime Minister of Australia
Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, as leader of the Nationalist Party.
Born ...
, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa
J. B. M. Hertzog
General James Barry Munnik Hertzog (3 April 1866 – 21 November 1942), better known as Barry Hertzog or J. B. M. Hertzog, was a South African politician and soldier. He was a Boer general during the Second Boer War who serve ...
, and Prime Minister of Canada
William Lyon Mackenzie King
William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17, 1874 – July 22, 1950) was a Canadian statesman and politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Canada for three non-consecutive terms from 1921 to 1926, 1926 to 1930, and 1935 to 1948. A Li ...
. The Prince, in addition to representing the King, was present as President of the Imperial War Graves Commission. Like other members of the military, he wore morning dress rather than uniform.
Following a short service by the Dean, the Prince of Wales, who himself had served in the war, declared:
I unveil this tablet in honour of our comrades, from every land under the Crown, who fell in the Great War. Time cannot dim our remembrance of them, nor lessen our gratitude to our Allies, who have given us the land in which many of them lie buried, so that we can care for their graves for ever.
This was followed by the laying of a wreath, the dedication by the Dean, the hymn ''
O Valiant Hearts
"O Valiant Hearts" is a hymn remembering the fallen of the First World War. It often features prominently in annual Remembrance Day services in the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth.
Words were taken from a poem by Sir John Stanhope ...
'' (a war poem set to music to remember the fallen of the Great War), prayers, the first verse of the National Anthem, and the closing blessing. After the Prince and the Prime Ministers had left, the Abbey was opened to allow those waiting outside to join the rest of the congregation in viewing the memorial.
The Westminster tablet, originally unveiled in the nave, was later placed on the west wall of the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Located to the south of the West Door, this chapel was intended to be dedicated to those that fell in the war. Sometimes referred to as the Warrior's Chapel, and located close to the
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
The British grave of the Unknown Warrior (often known as 'The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior') holds an unidentified member of the British armed forces killed on a European battlefield during the First World War.Hanson, Chapters 23 & 24 He was gi ...
, it was dedicated in 1932 as St George's Chapel. An inscription below the Empire memorial tablet states that the chapel was completed as a memorial to Field Marshal
Lord Plumer
Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer of the First World War. After commanding V Corps at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, he took command ...
. The following year, on Friday 10 November 1933, an annual tradition was started whereby a wreath of flowers from Commission cemeteries in Belgium and France was laid at the base of the tablet by Commission gardeners.
Writing in 1937 in his report on the 20-year anniversary of the founding of the Commission, Ware stated that the tablets were erected "that the total losses of the British Empire might thus be visibly recorded". Similar sentiments had been expressed in a lecture given in 1930 by H. C. Osborne, the Commission's representative in Canada, stating that the memorial tablets "will serve as perpetual and significant reminders, to all who read, of the part taken by our Empire in the greatest war in history." Central to this, and to Ware's life's work establishing and building up the Commission, were the ideals of Empire and the imperial basis for the commemorations. In his 1937 report, also published in book form, Ware declared:
These cathedral tablets are the first and only memorials to express in sculptured form the union of the partner nations in the British Commonwealth under one Crown. They have been called the coping-stone of the Commission's work.
The wording on the Westminster tablet was changed following the Second World War to include those who fell in that war (the wordings on the Commission's tablets erected in Belgium and France were left unchanged). A further inscription below the tablet in St George's Chapel in the Abbey commemorates Ware himself, who died in 1949. A print of the original tablet is held at the Abbey.
Replicas and later history
Following the unveiling of the tablet in Westminster Abbey in 1926, requests were made to the Commission for permission to install replicas of the tablet in various locations. In some cases, full-scale copies were produced and installed in churches. In other cases, colour prints of the tablets were distributed to British Legion branches and other ex-servicemen organisations in the UK and abroad. An example of the latter is the framed colour print recorded in the
UK National Inventory of War Memorials
The War Memorials Register (WMR), formerly the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, was founded in 1989 to build a comprehensive record of every war memorial in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Based at the Imperia ...
as being held at a Royal British Legion branch in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, UK. A similar print was presented by the Imperial War Graves Commission in 1935 to the Legacy Club in
Fremantle
Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australian vernacular diminutive for ...
, Australia, later presented to the city council for safekeeping. A replica of the standard French tablet is installed at the museum (inaugurated in 1986) at the Delville Wood Memorial.
Two replicas of the Westminster tablet are maintained by the Canadian Agency of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. These replicas are located in the Church of the Ascension,
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...
, and in Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia. The Hamilton tablet, erected by the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry, was unveiled on 2 October 1927 by the former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Major General Sir
John Morison Gibson
Sir John Morison Gibson (January 1, 1842 – June 3, 1929) was a Canadians, Canadian politician and the List of lieutenant governors of Ontario#Lieutenant Governors of Ontario, 1867-present, tenth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
Biography ...
. As at the Westminster Abbey service the previous year, the hymn ''O Valiant Hearts'' was included in the service. Major General Sydney Chilton Mewburn addressed the congregation before the unveiling, and the memorial tablet was dedicated by the Lord Bishop of Niagara Derwyn Owen. The tablet at Christ Church in Vancouver was agreed after lengthy correspondence between the Commission and the rector, the Reverend Dr
Robert John Renison
Robert John Renison (8 September 1875 – 6 October 1957) was an Irish-born Anglican bishop who worked in Canada.
Renison was born in Cashel, County Tipperary into an ecclesiastical family on 8 September 1875 and educated at Trinity College Sch ...
. It was unveiled on the tenth anniversary of the Armistice (11 November 1928) by the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Robert Randolph Bruce
Robert Randolph Bruce (July 16, 1861 – February 21, 1942) was an engineer, mining proprietor and the 13th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia from 1926 to 1931.
Bruce was born in Scotland and educated at the University of Glasgow where h ...
. A replica of the Westminster tablet was also installed in the Anglican Church of St George in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
, Iraq, in the 1930s.
As with the original tablets, those maintaining the replicas had to make a decision after the Second World War whether to leave the wording of the inscription unchanged, or to update the wording. The tablet in Vancouver was updated to include the Second World War period from 1939 to 1945, and then again to include the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
period from 1950 to 1953.
Over the years since their installation, a number of the Commission's tablets in France and Belgium have required maintenance, restoration or replacement. Some were affected by damp (at Orléans and Laon), and some were damaged during the Second World War (at Rouen, Boulogne and Nantes). The replacement tablets were produced by Reginald Hallward's daughter Patricia Hallward. Another tablet to suffer war damage is the one that was installed in St George's Anglican Church in Baghdad, Iraq. The current church building was erected by the British in 1936 during the period when they controlled the area after the First World War. Worship resumed at the church in 1998 following a 14-year period of neglect. The stained glass windows, and the building itself, were memorials to the British regiments that fought Ottoman forces here in what was then Mesopotamia. Prior to the war in Iraq in 2003, the memorial tablet was faded but undamaged. During the war, the tablet, mounted on the wall of the nave, was damaged by shrapnel. As reported by journalist
Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk (12 July 194630 October 2020) was a writer and journalist who held British and Irish citizenship. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians. His stanc ...
in December 2003 and April 2012, parts of the inscription were damaged, with the initial lines and final lines still legible: "... in honour for ever".
Notes and references
;Transcriptions
;Notes
;References
* Section 9. Memorials Erected by the Commission; Section 10. Memorials Erected By Other Groups Or Individuals.
**
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{{refend
External links
;Photographs of memorial tablets
Amiens (Australians on the Western Front 1914–1918) (La Cathédrale de Nantes) (Mémoires de pierre en Pas-de-Calais – Monuments aux morts du Pas-de-Calais) Amiens Bayeux Beauvais Boulogne Laon Meaux Nancy Nantes Notre Dame de Paris Noyon Orléans Saint-Omer Soissons Reims (MémorialGenWeb) Church of the Ascension, Hamilton Ypres Marseille Le Mans (Flickr) Westminster Abbey (Australian War Memorial collections)
;Further reading
* ''The Builder'', Volume 125, 1923, p. 170: "British War Memorial Tablet, Amiens Cathedral"
* Tijdschrift van de West-Vlaamse Gidsenkring Ieper-Poperinge-Westland, Wilfried Beele, ''Westland Gidsenkroniek'', jaargang 2010, nr. 3
* De gedenkplaat voor de Britse oorlogsdoden in de Sint-Maartenskerk in Ieper, Roger Verbeke, ''Gidsenkroniek Westland'', 1998, nr. 6, pp. 191–198.
* ''Zij, die vielen als helden'', Mariette Jacobs (2 volumes, Brugge, 1996, Uitgave Provincie West-Vlaanderen)
(The Great War in Flanders Field)
Gedenkplaat Commonwealth-doden Sint-Maartenskerk (Ieper – WOI) (Inventaris Onroerend Erfgoed)
including details of the tablet unveiling (Mémoires de pierre en Pas-de-Calais – Monuments aux morts du Pas-de-Calais)
Amiens Cathedral includes details of memorial tablet (Australians on the Western Front 1914–1918)
**
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
World War I
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 ...