![Royal Fusiliers War Memorial (6093348486)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Royal_Fusiliers_War_Memorial_%286093348486%29.jpg)
The Royal Fusiliers War Memorial is a memorial in London, dedicated to the members of the
Royal Fusiliers killed in the World Wars, Russian Civil War and subsequent conflicts, along with members of a number of
London Regiment battalions killed in the First World War. It consists of a bronze statue on a pedestal made of
Portland stone.
It was erected in 1922 at
Holborn Bar, one of the ancient entry points to the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
, on a traffic island in the middle of
High Holborn
High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...
, on the City's boundary with the
London Borough of Camden
The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and ...
, denoted by a
dragon boundary mark on either side of the street. The site is near High Holborn's junction with
Gray's Inn Road
Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...
, and is close to the historic
Staple Inn
Staple Inn is a part-Tudor period, Tudor building on the south side of High Holborn street in the City of London, London, England. Located near Chancery Lane tube station, it is used as the London venue for meetings of the Institute and Faculty ...
.
History
![Royal Fusiliers War Memorial Inscription](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Royal_Fusiliers_War_Memorial_Inscription.jpg)
An original intention to erect a memorial to the Royal London Fusiliers in a
Royal Park shifted to
Hounslow Barracks
Cavalry Barracks is a former British Army installation located north of Hounslow Heath in Hounslow, west London. Hounslow was one of 40 new barracks established around the country in the wake of the French Revolution, to guard against the dual t ...
and then Holborn. A subscription list opened in 1919 and raised £3,000 by August 1920. The monument was unveiled by the
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
on 4 November 1922. The church of
St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, about east of the memorial, was selected as the regimental chapel in 1946. The memorial became a Grade II
listed structure
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 ...
in 1972, upgraded to Grade II* in July 2017.
Inscriptions
The main inscription is on the west-facing front of the pedestal below a bronze relief of the Tudor Rose from the regimental badge and states the memorial's dedication to the almost 22,000 soldiers of Royal Fusiliers who died during 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
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
, with later additions commemorating the Royal Fusiliers who died during 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 ...
and in subsequent conflicts. A bronze plaque on the pedestal's east-facing reverse lists 47
regular,
Territorial
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
,
service,
reserve
Reserve or reserves may refer to:
Places
* Reserve, Kansas, a US city
* Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish
* Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County
* Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...
,
special reserve
The Special Reserve was established on 1 April 1908 with the function of maintaining a reservoir of manpower for the British Army and training replacement drafts in times of war. Its formation was part of the military reforms implemented by Ri ...
, extra, garrison and
labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
battalions of the Royal Fusiliers which served between 1914 and 1919, along with a number of London Regiment battalions whose predecessors had been attached to the Royal Fusiliers prior to 1908.
Statue
The high bronze statue was designed by
Albert Toft
Albert Toft (3 June 1862 – 18 December 1949) was a British sculptor.
Toft's career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in ...
and cast by
A.B. Burton at the
Thames Ditton Foundry, with Cheadle and Harding as architects. It is said to be modelled on a Sergeant Cox, who served throughout the First World War. It depicts a private soldier in
service dress
Service dress uniform is the informal type of uniform used by military, police, fire and other public uniformed services for everyday office, barracks and non-field duty purposes and sometimes for ceremonial occasions. It frequently consists of ...
, carrying a rifle with fixed bayonet in his right hand, facing along the road to the west to guard the entrance to the City of London. An identical statue is one of five bronze figures by Toft forming a sculpture group for
Oldham War Memorial, unveiled in 1923. The same single bronze figure was unveiled in 1932 as the memorial to the
41st Division at
Flers, near the site of the
Battle of Flers-Courcelette, where tanks were used in battle for the first time on 15 September 1916.
See also
*
List of public art in the City of London
This is a list of public art in the City of London, including statues, busts, commemorative plaques and other memorials.
The City of London is the historic nucleus of London as well as its modern financial centre. The City of London Corporati ...
*
Grade II* listed war memorials in England
There are 137 Grade II* listed war memorials in England, out of over 4,000 listed war memorials. In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a building or structure of special historical or architectural importance; listing offers the building ...
Notes
References
The Royal Fusiliers Memorial victorianweb.org
*
The War Memorial at Holborn The Fusilier Museum London
firstworldwar.com
{{coord, 51.51811, -0.11083, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Military memorials in London
World War I memorials in England
World War II memorials in England
1922 sculptures
Bronze sculptures in the United Kingdom
Royal Fusiliers
Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
Sculptures by Albert Toft
Grade II* listed buildings in the City of London
Grade II* listed monuments and memorials