The South African War Memorial is a

First World War memorial World War I is remembered and commemorated by various war memorials, including civic memorials, larger national monuments, war cemeteries, private memorials and a range of utilitarian designs such as halls and parks, dedicated to remembering th ...

in Richmond Cemetery in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

. Designed by architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial is in the form of a cenotaph, similar to that on Whitehall, also by Lutyens. It was commissioned by the South African Hospital and Comforts Fund Committee to commemorate the 39 South African soldiers who died of their wounds at a military hospital in Richmond Park during the First World War. The memorial was unveiled by General Jan Smuts in 1921 and was the focus of pilgrimages from South Africa through the 1920s and 1930s, after which it was largely forgotten until the 1980s when the

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 ...

took responsibility for its maintenance. It has been 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 ...

since 2012.

Background

Richmond Park, adjacent to the cemetery, was the location of the South African Military Hospital 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 39 South African soldiers who died at the hospital were buried in Richmond Cemetery. After the end of the war, the South African Hospital and Comforts Fund Committee resolved to erect a memorial in the area of the cemetery known as "soldiers' corner", which includes the graves of the 39 South Africans. The committee commissioned Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation" to design the memorial, Lutyens having previously designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations. Lutyens was also responsible for the

Rand Regiments Memorial The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...

(later renamed the Anglo-Boer War Memorial) in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, erected in 1911 to commemorate the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

(1899–1902)—his first war memorial. After the First World War, he worked extensively with the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWCG) to design memorials in cemeteries on the Western Front, including 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 IWCG cemeteries. Historic England described Richmond Cemetery as being "unusually well endowed with war memorials and war graves". Close to the South African Memorial is a section dedicated to ex-servicemen from the

Royal Star and Garter Home The Royal Star and Garter Home on Richmond Hill, in Richmond, London, was built between 1921 and 1924 to a design by Sir Edwin Cooper, based on a plan produced by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1915, to provide accommodation and nursing facilitie ...

in Richmond, which is marked by the

Bromhead Memorial The Bromhead Memorial is a memorial and grade II listed building in Richmond Cemetery in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It denotes a plot in the cemetery in which deceased residents of the nearby Royal Star and Garter Home are bur ...

History and design

The memorial is in the form of a cenotaph, constructed in coarse granite to a design modelled on the Whitehall cenotaph. Unusually among Lutyens' memorials, it has a triangular top. It has a flared base and sits on a base of two stone steps, in contrast to the three on which most of Lutyens' memorials stand. The only significant

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

on the memorial is two sculpted wreaths, one on each side, which have their own carved supports. The apex of each face bears the head of a springbok, the national symbol of South Africa, in low relief. The memorial contains inscription in both English and Dutch: on the outer face (facing away from the war graves) is the English inscription "UNION IS STRENGTH / OUR GLORIOUS DEAD", on the base below which is an inscribed cross; on the opposite side, facing the graves, is the same dedication in Dutch, "EENDRAGHT MAAKT MACHT, ONZEN GEVALLENEN HELDEN". On the north side of the cenotaph is engraved the Roman numeral MMXIV (1914) and on the south MMXIX (1919). Cenotaph, Richmond Cemetery (07)

According to Lutyens researcher Tim Skelton, the starkness of the South African Memorial in comparison to other Lutyens memorials and its differences to his other works is symbolic of the breakdown of the relationship between Lutyens and Herbert Baker. The two architects had collaborated on several projects in South Africa and India, but ultimately fell out over an alteration to the design of

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. The memorial was unveiled on 30 June 1921 and formally accepted by South African General Jan Smuts, who had previously laid the foundation stone, on behalf of the South African government in a ceremony officiated by the Bishop of St Albans. After the unveiling, it became a focal point for pilgrims from South Africa throughout the 1920s and 1930s, but thereafter fell into a state of neglect, in part due to strained relationships with South Africa during the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era. It came to the attention of the IWGC (by then renamed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission) in 1981, and the commission agreed to take responsibility for its maintenance on behalf of the South African government. Since 24 July 2012, the cenotaph has been designated a grade II

for its special architectural or historic interest, a status which offers legal protection from unauthorised demolition or unauthorised modification. In November 2015, as part of commemorations for the centenary of the First World War, Lutyens' war memorials were recognised as a "national collection" and all 44 of his free-standing memorials were listed or had their listing status reviewed and their National Heritage List for England list entries were updated and expanded.

References

Sources

* * * {{Cemeteries, crematoria and memorials in Richmond upon Thames 1921 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1921 Cenotaphs in the United Kingdom Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Grade II listed monuments and memorials Memorials maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Military memorials in London Richmond, London Works of Edwin Lutyens in England War memorials by Edwin Lutyens World War I memorials in England