The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Cenotaph is a First World War memorial dedicated to members of the

Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army based in the county of Kent in existence from 1881 to 1961. The regiment was created on 1 July 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms, originally as the Queen' ...

and located in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, south-eastern England. Unveiled in 1921, 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 ...

following his design for

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 and is today 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

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 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' civic war memorials. The Queen's Own Royal West Kent memorial is one of seven cenotaphs in England designed by Lutyens besides the one on Whitehall, and one of two to serve as a memorial for a regiment (the other being the

Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial The Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial or Royal Berkshire Regiment Cenotaph is a World War I memorials, First World War memorial dedicated to members of the Royal Berkshire Regiment and located in Brock Barracks in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, though the Welch Regiment War Memorial in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Wales, is also a regimental memorial in the form of a cenotaph). A committee was formed in December 1918 with a view to commissioning a war memorial for the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, who lost 6,866 men in the First World War. After settling on a reduced-scale version of the Whitehall Cenotaph, the committee commissioned Lutyens to design it. Whereas Lutyens had insisted that his Stone of Remembrance should never be reduced in size, it appears he was happy to design a two-thirds-scale cenotaph.

History and design

The memorial, situated in Brenchley Gardens, was built by local construction firm GE Wallis and Sons. It was unveiled by Major General Sir Edmund Leach, colonel of the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment at a ceremony on 30 July 1921. The dedication was performed by Randall Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lieutenant General Sir Edwin Alderson gave an address to the crowds. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the colours of the regiment's territorial battalion (reserves) and service battalion (volunteers who enlisted for the war) were laid up in All Saints Church. The

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

("empty tomb") is almost identical to that on Whitehall, except that it is reduced to two-thirds scale and is not adorned by flags. Built from Portland stone, it consists of a chest tomb, covered by a moulded laurel wreath, at the top of a three-staged rectangular base. The base sits on top of the large rectangular shaft, set back slightly towards the top, which itself rests on a two-stage base of rectangular blocks. The whole structure stands on a base of three shallow steps, typical of Lutyens' war memorials. Decorations on the memorial are sparse, consisting solely of a moulded laurel wreath on the two sides, below which are inscribed the dates of the two world wars (inscriptions for the Second World War were added later). The two faces contain the only inscriptions: "THE GLORIOUS DEAD / OF THE QUEEN'S OWN ROYAL WEST KENT REGIMENT / NUMBERING 6866 OF ALL RANKS / ALSO NUMBERING 1663 OF ALL RANKS". The memorial was designated a grade II

on 2 August 1974. In October 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' 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. As part of this process, the Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Cenotaph was upgraded to grade II* listed building status, as was the Royal Berkshire's memorial in Reading.

References

* {{Reflist Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Grade II* listed monuments and memorials Grade II* listed buildings in Kent World War I memorials in England World War II memorials in England Buildings and structures in Maidstone Monuments and memorials in Kent Works of Edwin Lutyens in England War memorials by Edwin Lutyens Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Military history of Kent

Background

History and design

See also

References