The Soissons Memorial is a

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 ...

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

located in the town of Soissons, in the

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The memorial lists 3,887 names of British soldiers with no known grave who were killed in the area from May to August 1918 during the German spring offensive. The battles fought by those commemorated here include the

Third Battle of the Aisne The Third Battle of the Aisne (french: 3e Bataille de l'Aisne) was a battle of the German spring offensive during World War I that focused on capturing the Chemin des Dames Ridge before the American Expeditionary Forces arrived completely in ...

and the Second Battle of the Marne. Soissons Memorial.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 31 December 2009. This is a free-standing memorial (one without an associated cemetery) constructed 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 was designed by G. H. Holt and V. O. Rees with sculpture by Eric Kennington. The memorial was unveiled on 22 July 1928 by Sir Alexander Hamilton-Gordon. Hamilton-Gordon was a general in World War I, commanding

IX Corps 9 Corps, 9th Corps, Ninth Corps, or IX Corps may refer to: France * 9th Army Corps (France) * IX Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars Germany * IX Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German ...

from 1916 onwards, and was commander of this corps during the Third Battle of the Aisne, which is commemorated here.

References

External links

Details of Kennington's sculpture and the inscription
(from YourArchives) Commonwealth War Graves Commission memorials World War I memorials in France Buildings and structures completed in 1928 Buildings and structures in Aisne Tourist attractions in Aisne {{mil-memorial-stub

See also

References

External links