The Royal Berkshire Regiment War Memorial or Royal Berkshire Regiment Cenotaph is a First World War memorial dedicated to members of the

Royal Berkshire Regiment The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was created in 1881, as the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire Regiment), b ...

and located in

Brock Barracks Brock Barracks is a British Army barracks in the town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading in the English county of Berkshire. Located on Oxford Road, Reading, Oxford Road in the district of West Reading, Berkshire, West Reading. The majority of the bu ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, Berkshire, in south-east 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 ...

, based on 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 A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain numbering scheme, A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea, London, Chelsea. It is the main ...

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 wit ...

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 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 The Stone of Remembrance is a standardised design for war memorials that was designed in 1917 by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). It was designed to commemorate the dead of World War I, to b ...

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 mil ...

cemeteries and in several of Lutyens' civic war memorials. The Royal Berkshire Regiment 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

Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Cenotaph 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 and located in Maidstone in Kent, south-eastern England. Unveiled in 1921, the memorial was designed ...

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, 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 c ...

, though the

Welch Regiment War Memorial The Welch Regiment War Memorial, also known as the Maindy Monument is a First World War memorial at Maindy Barracks in the Cathays area of Cardiff in Wales. The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and follows his design for the Cenotaph on ...

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). The

quickly decided that it wanted a copy of Whitehall's cenotaph for its own war memorial and duly commissioned Lutyens, who appears to have been happy to design reduced-scale version of the cenotaph to accommodate for smaller budgets, unlike the Stone of Remembrance, which he insisted must never be reduced in size. The Royal West Kent memorial was built to two-thirds scale, while the Royal Berkshire's version is half size.

History and design

The memorial was built by GE Wallis and Sons Ltd of Maidstone, who also built the Royal West Kent Regiment's memorial, at a cost of £3,000 (1921). Major General Edward Thompson Dickson, the colonel of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, unveiled the cenotaph on 13 September 1921. The regiment's roll of honour was placed inside the cenotaph during the unveiling ceremony. Customary for a Lutyens memorial, the cenotaph stands on a base of three steps and is in

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 sto ...

; it is situated on a lawned area within Brock Barracks, formerly the headquarters of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. At the very top of the structure is an urn—a feature Lutyens originally proposed or the cenotaph on Whitehall and which features on the

Arch of Remembrance The Arch of Remembrance is a First World War memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and located in Victoria Park, Leicester, in the East Midlands of England. Leicester's industry contributed significantly to the British war effort. A tempora ...

in Leicester. The urn sits on top of a chest tomb, and a three-staged base connects it to the main shaft, which is set back slightly towards the top; the shaft itself is moulded onto a base of two rectangular blocks. Although richer than other memorials, the cenotaph is still sparsely decorated. Attached to it are two painted stone flags carved by

Eric Broadbent The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

—the King's Colour on the west side and the regiment's colour on the east—which are joined to moulded wreaths on the ends by laurel swags. Painted flags featured in Lutyens' original proposal for the Whitehall cenotaph (Lutyens proposed six, though the Royal Berkshire Regiment's memorial only features two), but were rejected in favour of fabric, though they feature on several of his other memorials. On the north face, the memorial is inscribed: "TO THE MEMORY OF OFFICERS, WARRANT OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, AND MEN OF THE ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT", while the south side reads: "THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED BY PAST AND PRESENT OFFICERS AND MEN OF THE ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT AND THEIR RELATIVES IN MEMORY OF THE 353 OFFICERS AND 6375 OTHER RANKS OF THE REGIMENT WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918 / RE-DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF THE 93 OFFICERS AND 974 OTHER RANKS OF THE REGIMENT WHO FELL IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939 – 1945". The names of the dead are inscribed on a wall to the north of the cenotaph. The memorial was designated a grade II

on 22 December 1975. 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, an ...

list entries were updated and expanded. As part of this process, the Royal Berkshire Regiment memorial was upgraded to grade II* listed building status, as was the Royal West Kent's memorial in Maidstone.

References

* {{Listed buildings in Reading World War I memorials in England World War II memorials in England Grade II* listed monuments and memorials Monuments and memorials in Berkshire Works of Edwin Lutyens in England War memorials by Edwin Lutyens Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Grade II* listed buildings in Reading

Background

History and design

See also

References