The Cenotaph is a war memorial on
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. 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 ...
in London, England. 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 memorials ...
, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the dead of Britain and the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
of the
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, was rededicated in 1946 to include those of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and has since come to represent the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...
casualties from those and subsequent conflicts. The word ''
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...
'' is derived from Greek, meaning 'empty tomb'. Most of the dead were buried close to where they fell; thus, the Cenotaph symbolises their absence and is a focal point for public mourning. The original temporary Cenotaph was erected in 1919 for a parade celebrating the end of the First World War, at which more than 15,000 servicemen, including French and American soldiers, saluted the monument. More than a million people visited the site within a week of the parade.
Calls for the Cenotaph to be rebuilt in permanent form began almost immediately. After some debate, the government agreed and construction work began in May 1920. Lutyens added
entasis (curvature) but otherwise made minimal design alterations. The Cenotaph is built from
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
. It takes the form of a tomb chest atop a rectangular
pylon, which diminishes as it rises. Three flags hang from each of the long sides. The memorial is austere, containing almost no decoration. The permanent Cenotaph was unveiled by
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
George was born during the reign of his pa ...
on 11 November 1920 in a ceremony combined with the repatriation of
the Unknown Warrior
The Unknown Warrior is an unidentified member of the British Empire, British Imperial armed forces who died on the Western Front (World War I), western front during the First World War. He is interred in a grave at Westminster Abbey, also kno ...
, an unidentified British serviceman to be interred in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
. After the unveiling, millions more people visited the Cenotaph and the Unknown Warrior. The memorial met with public acclaim and has largely been praised by academics, though some Christian organisations disapproved of its lack of overt religious symbolism.
The Cenotaph has been revered since its unveiling, and while nationally important has been the scene of several political protests and vandalised with spray paint twice in the 21st century. The
National Service of Remembrance
The National Service of Remembrance is held every year on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, London. It commemorates "the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and ...
is held annually at the site on
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 ...
; it is also the scene of other remembrance services. The Cenotaph is a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
and forms part of a national collection of Lutyens's war memorials. Dozens of replicas were built in Britain and other Commonwealth countries. While there was no set or agreed standard for First World War memorials, the Cenotaph proved to be one of the most influential models for such structures. Lutyens designed several other cenotaphs, which all shared common features with that at Whitehall. The Cenotaph has been the subject of several artworks and has featured in multiple works of literature, including a novel and several poems. The public acclaim for the monument was responsible for Lutyens becoming a national figure, and the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
awarded him its
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...
in 1921. For several years afterwards much of his time was taken up with war memorial commissions.
Background

The
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
produced casualties on a scale previously unseen by developed nations. More than 1.1million men from the
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...
were killed. In the war's aftermath, thousands of war memorials were erected across Britain and its empire, and on the former battlefields. Amongst the most prominent designers of war memorials was
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 memorials ...
, 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 Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
as "the foremost architect of his day".
Lutyens established his reputation designing
country house
image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire
An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...
s for wealthy clients around the turn of the 20th century; his first major public commission was the design of much of New Delhi, the new capital of British India. The war had a profound effect on Lutyens and following it he devoted much of his time to the commemoration of its casualties. By the time he was commissioned for the Cenotaph, he was already acting as an adviser to the
Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC).
In 1917, he travelled to France under the auspices of the IWGC and was horrified by the scale of destruction. The experience influenced his later designs for war memorials and led him to the conclusion that a different form of architecture was required to properly memorialise the dead. He felt that neither
realism nor
expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
could adequately capture the atmosphere at the end of the war.
Lutyens's first war memorial was the
Rand Regiments Memorial (1911) in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
, South Africa, dedicated to casualties of the
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...
(1899–1902). His first commission for a memorial to the First World War was for
Southampton Cenotaph. The word ''
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty grave, tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere or have been lost. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although t ...
'' derives from the Greek word , meaning 'empty tomb'. Lutyens first encountered the term in connection with
Munstead Wood, in
Busbridge
Busbridge is a village in the civil parish of Godalming, in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England that adjoins the town of Godalming. It was until the Tudor period often recorded as Bushbridge and was a manor and hamlet of Godalming unt ...
, Surrey. There he designed a house for
Gertrude Jekyll
Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...
in the 1890s—one of his earliest major commissions. In the garden was a seat in the form of a rectangular block of
elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...
set on stone, which Charles Liddell—a friend of Lutyens and Jekyll and a librarian at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
—christened the "
Cenotaph of Sigismunda".
[Koureas, p. 38.][Massingham, pp. 140–142.]
From 1915, the British government prohibited the repatriation of the bodies of men killed overseas, meaning that most bereaved families did not have a nearby grave to visit and thus war memorials became a focal point for their grief. Cenotaphs originated in Ancient Greek tradition, where they were built when it was impossible to recover a body after the battle, as the Greeks placed great cultural importance on the proper burial of their war dead. Lutyens remembered the term when working on Southampton's memorial in early 1919. He broke with the Ancient Greek convention in that his designs for London's and Southampton's cenotaphs contained no explicit reference to battle. The result at Southampton (unveiled a week before London's permanent Cenotaph) lacks the subtlety of London's monument, but introduces several design elements common in Lutyens's subsequent memorials.
Origins: the temporary Cenotaph
The First World War ended with the
Armistice of 11 November 1918
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed in a railroad car, in the Compiègne Forest near the town of Compiègne, that ended fighting on land, at sea, and in the air in World War I between the Entente and their las ...
, although it was not officially declared over until the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
on 28 June 1919. The British government planned to hold a victory parade in London on 19 July, including soldiers marching to
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London, England. 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 ...
, the centre of the British government. The initial design for what would become the Cenotaph was one of a number of temporary structures erected along the parade's route. The prime minister,
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. A Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, he was known for leadi ...
, learnt that the French plans for a similar parade in Paris included a saluting point for the marching troops and was keen to replicate the idea for the British parade. How Lutyens became involved is unclear, but he was close friends with
Sir Alfred Mond and
Sir Lionel Earle (respectively the government minister and senior civil servant at the
Office of Works
The Office of Works was an organisation responsible for structures and exterior spaces, first established as part of the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences.
In 1832 it be ...
, which was responsible for public building projects) and it seems likely that one or both men discussed the idea with Lutyens. Lloyd George summoned Lutyens and asked him to design a "
catafalque
A catafalque is a raised bier, box, or similar platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of a dead person during a Christian funeral or memorial service. Following a Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, a catafalqu ...
" as the centre point for the parade. Lloyd George emphasised that the structure was to be non-denominational. Lutyens met with
Sir Frank Baines, chief architect at the Office of Works, the same day to sketch his idea for the Cenotaph and sketched it again for his friend
Lady Sackville over dinner that night. Both sketches show the Cenotaph almost as-built.
At the end of the war, there was considerable social upheaval and civil unrest in Britain and Ireland, and industrial relations were tense. The government, fearful that revolutionary ideologies such as
Bolshevism
Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...
might start to take hold, hoped the parade and a central saluting point would unite the nation in celebrating the victorious conclusion to the war and commemorating the sacrifice of the dead.
Although Lutyens apparently produced the design very quickly, he had had the concept in mind for some time, as evidenced by his design for Southampton Cenotaph and his work for the IWGC. Lutyens and Mond had previously worked together on a design for a war shrine in
Hyde Park, intended to replace a temporary structure erected during the war. Though the shrine was never built, the design started Lutyens thinking about commemorative architecture, and the architectural historian
Allan Greenberg speculates that Mond may have discussed the concept of a memorial with Lutyens prior to the meeting with the prime minister.
According to Tim Skelton, author of ''Lutyens and the Great War'', "If it was not to be on Whitehall then the Cenotaph as we know it would have appeared somewhere else in due course."
[Skelton, p. 42.] Several of Lutyens's sketches survive, which show that he experimented with multiple minor changes to the design, including a flaming urn at the top of the Cenotaph and sculptures of soldiers or lions at the base (similar to the lion heads on Southampton Cenotaph).
Lutyens submitted his final design to the Office of Works in early July, and on 7 July received confirmation that the design had been approved by the foreign secretary,
Lord Curzon
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...
, who was organising the parade.
[Greenberg, p. 9.] The unveiling of the monument, built in wood and plaster by the Office of Works, was described in ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' as a quiet and unofficial ceremony. It took place on 18 July 1919, the day before the Victory Parade. Lutyens was not invited. During the parade, 15,000 soldiers and 1,500 officers marched past and saluted the Cenotaph—among them were American General
John J. Pershing and French Marshal
Ferdinand Foch
Ferdinand Foch ( , ; 2 October 1851 – 20 March 1929) was a French general, Marshal of France and a member of the Académie Française and French Academy of Sciences, Académie des Sciences. He distinguished himself as Supreme Allied Commander ...
, as well as the British commanders Field Marshal
Sir Douglas Haig and Admiral of the Fleet
Sir David Beatty. The Cenotaph quickly captured the public imagination. Repatriation of the dead had been forbidden since the early days of the war, so the Cenotaph came to represent the absent dead and serve as a substitute for a tomb. Beginning almost immediately after the Victory Parade and continuing for days afterwards, members of the public began laying flowers and wreaths around the memorial. Within a week, an estimated 1.2million people came to the Cenotaph to pay their respects to the dead, and the base was covered in flowers and other tributes.
[Skelton, p. 43.] According to ''The Times'', "no feature of the victory march in London made a deeper impression than the Cenotaph."
[Greenberg, p. 8.]
After the Victory Parade, the temporary Cenotaph became a point of pilgrimage for many people, including grieving relatives. Deputations arrived from as far away as
Dundee
Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...
, and schools organised excursions to take children to see it. The crowds were particularly large on 11 November 1919, the first anniversary of the armistice. An estimated 6,000 people were crowded round the memorial and it took the intervention of the police to create space for Lloyd George to lay a wreath. The French president,
Raymond Poincaré
Raymond Nicolas Landry Poincaré (; 20 August 1860 – 15 October 1934) was a French statesman who served as President of France from 1913 to 1920, and three times as Prime Minister of France. He was a conservative leader, primarily committed to ...
, also laid a wreath; King George V and
Queen Mary sent a wreath but were not present at the Cenotaph. A
two-minute silence
In the United Kingdom and other countries within the Commonwealth, a two-minute silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who died in conflict. Held each year at 11:00 am on 11 November, the silence coincides with the ...
was observed, after which veterans' groups marched past. The government, caught by surprise by the strength of feeling, resolved to lay on an organised event for 1920.
Reconstruction in stone

Suggestions that the temporary cenotaph should be re-built as a permanent structure began almost immediately, coming from members of the public and national newspapers.
Four days after the parade,
William Ormsby-Gore, Member of Parliament for
Stafford
Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, England. It is located about south of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Wolverhampton, and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 71,673 at the 2021–2022 United Kingd ...
—an army officer who fought in the war and was part of the British delegation at Versailles—questioned Mond about the Cenotaph in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
, and asked whether a permanent replacement was planned. Ormsby-Gore was supported by multiple other members. Mond announced that the decision rested with the cabinet, but promised to pass on the support of the House. The following week, ''The Times'' published an editorial calling for a permanent replacement (though the writer suggested that there was a risk of vehicles crashing into the Cenotaph in its original location and that it be built on nearby
Horse Guards Parade
Horse Guards Parade is a large Military parade, parade ground off Whitehall in central London (at British national grid reference system, grid reference ). It is the site of the annual ceremonies of Trooping the Colour, which commemorates the K ...
); many letters to London and national newspapers followed. The cabinet sought Lutyens's opinion, which was that the original site had been "qualified by the salutes of Foch and the allied armies
ndno other site would give this pertinence."
Mond agreed, telling the cabinet that "no other site would have the same historical or sentimental association."
[King, p. 146.] The cabinet bowed to public pressure, approving the re-building in stone, and in the original location, at its meeting on 30 July 1919.
[Greenberg, p. 10.]
Concerns remained about the Cenotaph's location. Another editorial in ''The Times'' suggested siting it in
Parliament Square, away from traffic, a location that was supported by the local authorities. The issue was again raised in the House of Commons, and Ormsby-Gore led the calls for the Cenotaph to be rebuilt on its original spot, stating, to acclaim, that he was certain that this option was the most popular with the public. Opposition to the site eventually quietened and the construction contract was awarded to
Holland, Hannen & Cubitts. Construction began in May 1920.
Lutyens waived his fee, and Mond gave Lutyens the opportunity to make any amendments to the design before work began. The architect submitted his proposed modifications on 1 November, which were approved the same day. He replaced the real
laurel wreath
A laurel wreath is a symbol of triumph, a wreath (attire), wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. It was also later made from spineless butcher's broom (''Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cher ...
s with stone sculptures and added
entasis—subtle curvature, reminiscent of the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of c ...
, so that the vertical surfaces taper inwards and the horizontals form arcs of a circle.
[Ward-Jackson, p. 418.][Greenberg, p. 11.] He wrote to Mond:
Lutyens had earlier used entasis for his
Stone of Remembrance, which appears in most large IWGC cemeteries. Some religious groups objected to the lack of Christian symbolism on the Cenotaph and suggested the inclusion of a cross or a more overtly Christian inscription. Lutyens objected to the proposal, and it was rejected by the government on the grounds that the Cenotaph was for people "from all parts of the empire, irrespective of their religious creeds".
[Edkins, p. 64.] The only other significant alteration Lutyens proposed was the replacement of the silk flags on the temporary Cenotaph with painted stone, fearing that the fabric would quickly become worn and look untidy. He was supported on this by Mond and engaged the sculptor
Francis Derwent Wood for assistance, but the change was rejected by the cabinet. A diary entry by Lady Sackville from August 1920 records Lutyens complaining bitterly about the change, though documents in
The National Archives
National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention.
Conceptual development
From the Middle Ages i ...
suggest that he had been aware of it six months previously.
[Skelton, pp. 43–45.]
The temporary Cenotaph, originally intended to remain in place only a week, was dismantled in January 1920, its condition having deteriorated severely. The work was carried out behind a screen to shield the partially dismantled monument from public view.
[Clouting, p. 160.] The top section, along with the flags, was preserved for the fledgling
Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...
(founded in 1917), as part of its exhibition on the war. The acquisition was the idea of
Charles ffoulkes, the museum's inaugural curator.
It was displayed prominently, and was used for the museum's own remembrance services in the interwar period until it was destroyed by a bomb during the Second World War.
The Imperial War Museum collections also include a wooden money-collection box in the shape of the Cenotaph, made from part of the temporary Cenotaph by
St Dunstan's.
Design
The Cenotaph is made from
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...
formed as a
pylon on a rectangular plan (two long sides and two short ones), with gradually diminishing tiers, culminating in a sculpted tomb chest (the empty tomb suggested by the name ''cenotaph'') on which is carved
laurel wreath
A laurel wreath is a symbol of triumph, a wreath (attire), wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. It was also later made from spineless butcher's broom (''Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cher ...
. The structure rises to a height of just over and is about at the base. Lutyens described it as "an empty tomb uplifted on a high pedestal".
The pylon's mass decreases with its height; the sides becoming narrower towards the bottom of the coffin. The base is in four stages from the top of the steps starting with the plinth, which connects to the base block. The plinth projects from the base block on all four sides. Above it is the transition
moulding which is in three stages—
torus
In geometry, a torus (: tori or toruses) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space one full revolution about an axis that is coplanarity, coplanar with the circle. The main types of toruses inclu ...
(semi-circular),
cyma reversa
Moulding (British English), or molding (American English), also coving (in United Kingdom, Australia), is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid ...
, and
cavetto
A cavetto is a concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle, widely used in architecture as well as furniture, picture frames, metalwork and other decorative arts. In describing vessels and similar shapes in pottery, ...
—taking the lower part of the structure just over above the ground. Greenberg describes this section as "quietly establish
ngthe memorial's overall character: an outward appearance of simple repose which, on close observation, shows itself to be dependent on the more complex forms of its masses".
At the top, the coffin is connected to the main structure by its own base of two steps, the transition smoothed by a torus moulding between the bottom step and the pylon. The coffin lid finishes with a
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...
, appearing to be supported by an
ovolo
Ovolo is an Italian language, Italian word that means "little egg". The ovolo or echinus is a convex molding (decorative), decorative molding profile used in Ornament (architecture), architectural ornamentation. Its profile is a quarter to a half ...
(a curved decorative moulding beneath the edge), which casts a shadow over the coffin; it is crowned by a laurel wreath. The bottom of the structure is mounted onto three diminishing steps on an island in the centre of Whitehall surrounded by government buildings. The monument is austere, containing very little decoration. At each end, on the second tier below the tomb, is a laurel wreath, echoing the one at the top, and on the sides is the inscription "". The only other inscription is the dates of the world wars in Roman numerals—the first on the ends, above the wreath, and the second on the sides. The sculptural work was carried out by Derwent Wood.
[Archer, p. 166.]
None of the lines on the pylon is straight. The sides are not parallel but are subtly curved using precise geometry so as to be barely visible to the naked eye (entasis). If extended, the apparently vertical surfaces would meet above the ground and the apparently horizontal surfaces are sections of a sphere whose centre would be below ground.
[Borg, pp. 74–75.] The use of curvature and diminishing tiers is intended to draw the eye upwards in a spiralling direction, first to the inscription, then to the top of the flags, to the wreath, and finally to the coffin at the top. Many of these elements were not present in Lutyens's early design, and the progression can be seen in several of the architect's sketches. In his sketch for Lady Sackville, he omitted most of the
setbacks, and had the wreaths on the sides hanging from pegs. In another drawing he included an
urn on top of the coffin and sculptures of lions flanking the base (similar to the pine cones on Southampton Cenotaph). Other experimental designs omit the flags, and one included a
recumbent effigy atop the coffin (in place of an urn). A wooden model from an early stage in the design process is in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, as are several of Lutyens's original drawings; others are in the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
' drawing library.
The Cenotaph is flanked on the long sides by flags of the United Kingdom—the
Royal Air Force Ensign,
Union Flag
The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags.
It is sometimes a ...
, and
Red Ensign
The Red Ensign or Red Duster is the civil ensign of the United Kingdom. It is one of the British ensigns, and it is used either plain or defacement (flag), defaced with either a Glossary of vexillology#Flag elements, badge or a Glossary of v ...
on one side, and the
Blue Ensign
The Blue Ensign is a British ensign that may be used on vessels by certain authorised yacht clubs, Royal Research Ships and British merchant vessels whose master holds a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve or has otherwise been issued a wa ...
, Union Flag, and
White Ensign
The White Ensign, at one time called the St George's Ensign because of the simultaneous existence of a crossless version of the flag, is an ensign worn on British Royal Navy ships and shore establishments. It consists of a red St George's Cr ...
on the other. Lutyens intended the flags to be carved in stone like the rest of the monument. He was overruled and cloth flags were used, though Lutyens went on to use stone flags on several of his other war memorials, painted on
Rochdale Cenotaph and
Northampton War Memorial (among others), and unpainted at
Étaples
Étaples or Étaples-sur-Mer (; or ; formerly ; ) is a communes of France, commune in the departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais, Hauts-de-France, northern France. It is a fishing and leisure port on the Canche river.
History
Étapl ...
and
Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux () is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France.
Geography
Villers-Bretonneux is situated some 19 km due east of Amiens, on the D1029 road and the A29 motorway.
Villers-Bretonneux borde ...
IWGC cemeteries.
The memorial was carved by
H.H. Martyn & Co. of Cheltenham.
Appreciation
On the day of its unveiling, ''The Times'' praised the Cenotaph as "simple, massive, unadorned". Catherine Moriarty, of the Imperial War Museum's
National Inventory of War Memorials project, observed in 1995 that the Cenotaph met with widespread public acclaim, and that the public adopted the unfamiliar name with enthusiasm. She described an empty tomb as a highly appropriate monument for the experience of the British public, considering that the vast majority of the British dead were buried overseas. Nonetheless, Moriarty believed that the Cenotaph, "...although popular, was too abstract in form and generalised in its commemorative allusion to fully satisfy the need for a focus of grief." This, Moriarty felt, was the reason that many local memorials, including some by Lutyens, adopted some form of figurative sculpture, such as a statue of a soldier.
[Moriarty, p. 15.]
According to the historian Alex King, the Cenotaph fitted the convention of a
shrine
A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
, such as the temporary memorials to the dead established across London during the war, including the Hyde Park shrine. King believed that the public response, particularly the laying of flowers, treated the Cenotaph as a shrine—a place for paying respects to the dead. Nonetheless, the austerity and apparent simplicity of the Cenotaph leaves its meaning open to a wide variety of interpretations, not all of which have been in keeping with Lutyens's intentions.
Some ascribed imperialistic or nationalistic meanings to the monument, including Haig, who called it "a symbol of the empire's unity".
[King, p. 147.] The ''
Catholic Herald
The ''Catholic Herald'' is a London-based Roman Catholic monthly magazine, founded in 1888 and a sister organisation to the non-profit Catholic Herald Institute, based in New York. After 126 years as a weekly newspaper, it became a magazine ...
'' called it a "pagan monument" and felt that it was insulting to Christianity,
and other traditional Christian groups were displeased by the lack of religious symbolism.
[Winter, p. 104.] Lutyens was a
pantheist
Pantheism can refer to a number of philosophical and religious beliefs, such as the belief that the universe is God, or panentheism, the belief in a non-corporeal divine intelligence or God out of which the universe arisesAnn Thomson; Bodies ...
, heavily influenced by his wife's involvement with
Theosophy
Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
. He opposed overt religious symbolism on the Cenotaph and in his work with the IWGC, a position which did not endear him to the church.
Roderick Gradidge
Roderick Gradidge Architectural Association School of Architecture, AA Dipl. ARIBA (3 January 1929 – 20 December 2000) was a British architect and writer on architecture, former Master of the Art Workers Guild and campaigner for a traditional a ...
, an architect and author of a biography of Lutyens, commented on Lutyens's use of geometry—"He
utyensrecognised that in this careful proportioning system he had hit on something that people could recognise though never understand; a sort of music of the spheres which expressed what they felt about the horrifying destruction
..both of human life and the shape of society itself."
The American historian
Jay Winter described the Cenotaph as displaying a "striking minimalism". According to Winter, the Cenotaph "managed to transform a victory parade
..into a time when millions could contemplate the
..inexorable reality of death in war," and was "a work of genius because of its simplicity. It says so much because it says nothing at all. It is a form on which anyone could inscribe his or her own thoughts, reveries, sadness." He believed that, in designing an empty tomb, "the tomb of no one
..became the tomb of all who had died in the war."
He compared it favourably to another of Lutyens's major commemorative works, the
Thiepval Memorial, built for the IWGC in France, and to
Maya Lin
Maya Ying Lin (Chinese: 林瓔; born October 5, 1959) is an American architect, designer and sculptor. Born in Athens, Ohio to Chinese immigrants, she attended Yale University to study architecture. In 1981, while still an undergraduate at Yal ...
's
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, commonly called the Vietnam Memorial, is a U.S. national memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring service members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Vietnam War. The site is dominated by two black granit ...
in Washington, DC.
Jenny Edkins, a British political scientist, also draws a parallel between the Cenotaph and the Vietnam Memorial and the unexpected public acclaim that both received immediately after their unveiling. Edkins believed that the apparent simplicity of, and lack of decoration on, the two memorials provided for a "collective act of mourning". Another architect, Andrew Crompton, of the
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...
, re-evaluated the Cenotaph at the turn of the 21st century. He compared the diminishing tiers (when viewed from the ground up) to the hilt of a sheathed sword, its blade buried beneath the ground, which he felt resembled the mythical sword
Excalibur
Excalibur is the mythical sword of King Arthur that may possess magical powers or be associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Its first reliably datable appearance is found in Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia Regum Britanniae''. E ...
.
[Crompton, pp. 64–67.]
The Cenotaph has been contrasted with the
Royal Artillery Memorial by
Charles Sargeant Jagger
Charles Sargeant Jagger (17 December 1885 – 16 November 1934) was a British sculptor
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically prese ...
. Lutyens submitted a proposed design for that memorial, but the Royal Artillery rejected it on the grounds that it was too similar to the Cenotaph, and that they wanted a more realist monument, rather than Lutyens's abstract
classicism
Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...
. Whereas Lutyens placed the empty coffin high above the ground, distancing the observer from it, Jagger sculpted a dead soldier and placed it at eye level, confronting the observer with the reality of war. The
Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
, inaugurated on the same day as the Cenotaph and another of London's most famous war memorials, has also been contrasted with the Cenotaph. Edkins observes that the Tomb was intended to "provide a grave for those who had none" and to become a focal point for the mourning of those buried overseas, but that the Cenotaph became much more popular as a site for both individual commemoration and public ceremonies.
The German-American historian
George Mosse noted that most countries involved in the First World War eventually adopted the concept of burying an unidentified soldier, but in London the Cenotaph fulfilled the same purpose, despite the tomb in the abbey. Unlike elsewhere, it was the Cenotaph and not an unknown warrior that became the centre of national ceremonies, which Mosse considered was because the abbey was "too cluttered with memorials and tombs of famous Englishmen to provide the appropriate place for pilgrimages or celebrations" compared to the Cenotaph's location in the middle of a broad avenue.
Ken Inglis, an Australian historian, and
Gavin Stamp
Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian.
Education
Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then ...
, a British architectural historian, both suggested that the Unknown Warrior was the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
's attempt to create a rival to the Cenotaph, which had no explicitly Christian symbolism, though another historian, David Lloyd, suggests that this was largely unsuccessful—the Church even petitioned for its own ceremonies to be the focus of attention on Armistice Day 1923, rather than those at the Cenotaph, but the proposal was rejected after it met with widespread public opposition.
[Stamp, p. 43.] Instead, Lloyd noted that the two monuments became closely linked, and that "Together, the memorials reflect the complexity and ambiguity of the British response to the Great War".
Unveiling
No date was announced for the completion of the Cenotaph at first, but the British government was keen to have it in place for
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day owing to the tradition of wearing a remembrance poppy) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth member states since the end of the First World War to honour armed forces me ...
(11 November). In September 1920, the announcement came that the Cenotaph would be unveiled on 11 November, the second anniversary of the armistice, and that the unveiling would be performed by
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
George was born during the reign of his pa ...
.
[Skelton, p. 47.] For the occasion, the government designated the Cenotaph the official memorial to all British and empire dead lost during the First World War. It subsequently became the official memorial to British casualties from later conflicts.
Late into the planning, the government decided to exhume an unidentified serviceman—thenceforth to be known as
the Unknown Warrior
The Unknown Warrior is an unidentified member of the British Empire, British Imperial armed forces who died on the Western Front (World War I), western front during the First World War. He is interred in a grave at Westminster Abbey, also kno ...
—from a grave in France, and inter him in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
. The last leg of the Unknown Warrior's journey to the abbey took place in coordination with events at the Cenotaph. The king was to unveil the Cenotaph, this time with Lutyens in attendance, along with other members of the royal family, the prime minister, and
Randall Davidson, the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
(the Church of England's most senior cleric). The Unknown Warrior was brought to Whitehall, his coffin resting on a gun carriage pulled by military horses, for the unveiling. The Cenotaph was shrouded in Union Flags until the king performed the unveiling at the stroke of 11 o'clock. This ceremonial act was followed by two minutes' silence, ending with the sounding of the "
Last Post
The "Last Post" is a British and Commonwealth bugle call used at military funerals, and at ceremonies commemorating those who have died in war.
Versions
The "Last Post" is either an A or a B♭ bugle call, primarily within British infan ...
". The king placed a wreath of roses on the Unknown Warrior's coffin, and the cortege continued its journey—His Majesty, the other royals, Lloyd George, and the archbishop following the gun carriage to the abbey.
The public response exceeded even that to the temporary Cenotaph in the aftermath of the armistice. Whitehall was closed to traffic for several days after the ceremony and wounded soldiers, other veterans, and members of the public began to file past the Cenotaph and lay flowers at its base. The volume of people wishing to lay tributes was such that there were delays of up to four hours to pass the Cenotaph; the procession continued through the night and into the next day.
Within a week, the Cenotaph was deep in flowers and an estimated 1.25million people had visited it so far,
while 500,000 had visited the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Lloyd George wrote to Lutyens, "The Cenotaph is the token of our mourning as a nation; the Grave of the Unknown Warrior is the token of our mourning as individuals."
Later history
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, it was customary for men to
doff their hats when passing the Cenotaph,
even on a bus. The pilgrimage which began with the Cenotaph's unveiling continued on a smaller scale for the rest of the 1920s and into the 1930s. Pilgrimages continued until the outbreak of the Second World War. A particularly large crowd gathered on 11 November 1946, the year after that war ended, but attendance largely fell away thereafter. In the later 1920s, several proposals emerged for modifications to the Cenotaph, including the addition of life-size bronze statues at its corners, and installing a light inside the wreath at the top to emit a vertical beam, but all were rejected by the Office of Works on Lutyens's advice. The statues in particular would have added a literal element to the memorial which Greenberg (writing in 1989) believed would have been at odds with its "open symbolism and abstract character".
[Greenberg, p. 12.]
After the unveiling of the permanent memorial, members of the public continued to lay floral tributes as well as hand-written messages and personal memorials such as photographs, wreaths, and glass domes. The Office of Works struggled to decide what to do with the tributes and how to maintain an appropriate tone. It began preserving the messages so that they could be compiled into albums and given to the Imperial War Museum. By March 1921, officials had catalogued more than 30,000 items; the volume was such that they were forced to abandon their efforts at preservation. The office was keen to avoid being seen as a censor but also to preserve the character of the Cenotaph; officials thus removed some tributes which contained overtly political messages.
[Edkins, pp. 66–70.] A group of 5,000 unemployed men, on an anti-capitalist protest, paraded past the Cenotaph in 1921 and laid wreaths at its base; several with explicit political messages were removed. In 1933,
Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Ernst Rosenberg ( – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government. He was the head o ...
, representing
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
, controversially laid a wreath at the Cenotaph. The accompanying card was removed overnight and the
swastika
The swastika (卐 or 卍, ) is a symbol used in various Eurasian religions and cultures, as well as a few Indigenous peoples of Africa, African and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American cultures. In the Western world, it is widely rec ...
on the wreath was scratched off. The following day, Captain James Sears, a First World War veteran and prospective
Labour Party parliamentary candidate, removed the entire wreath and threw it in the river. He described his actions as "a deliberate protest against the desecration of our national war memorial" and against the views of the Nazi Party, which he believed were the same as those Britain had fought against.
Sears was arrested, charged with malicious damage, and fined. Some newspaper columnists and letter writers sympathised with Sears's actions, though others felt that his actions themselves desecrated the Cenotaph by using it to make a political statement.
Following the Second World War, the Cenotaph was rededicated to include the British and empire dead from that war, and its dates in Roman numerals (MCMXXXIX and MCMXLV) were added to the inscription. King
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...
unveiled the additions at a ceremony on 10 November 1946.
No separate national memorial was built for the casualties of the second war; instead, remembrance services were expanded to commemorate the new dead, and veterans of that war and later conflicts joined an annual march-past.
Several political protests have taken place in the vicinity of the Cenotaph. In 2000, anti-capitalist protesters
spray-painted slogans on it and on a
statue of Winston Churchill. In
a 2010 student protest, a man climbed the base and swung from one of the flags. In June 2020, the base was vandalised with spray paint during
Black Lives Matter protests, and the following day a protester attempted to set fire to one of the Union Flags on the Cenotaph.
The Cenotaph and several other monuments were covered up temporarily to prevent any further vandalism,
and counter-protesters (including some far-right activists) congregated around it a few days later. On 11 November 2020, the environmental group
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...
held a protest at the Cenotaph at a time when no official ceremony could take place due to
COVID-19 restrictions
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar societal restrictions), were implemented in numero ...
; the protest was condemned by politicians and
the Royal British Legion
The Royal British Legion (RBL), formerly the British Legion, is a British Charitable organization, charity providing financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants.
...
. A group of football supporters and far-right protesters clashed with police at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day 2023, the day before Remembrance Sunday commemorations, claiming to defend the Cenotaph in response to a pro-Palestinian march through London the same day which was itself a response to the
Gaza war
The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...
.
In 2013, just before the
centenary of the First World War,
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
carried out £60,000 of restoration work on the Cenotaph. Contractors cleaned the stonework using steam and a
poultice
A poultice or cataplasm, also called a fomentation, is a soft moist mass, often heated and medicated, that is applied to the skin to reduce inflammation, soothe pain, promote healing, or otherwise treat wounds or ailments. Soft materials like cer ...
to remove dirt and algae and counter the effects of weathering and pollution. Somewhat controversially, the German president,
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician who has served as President of Germany since 2017. He was previously Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany), federal minister for foreign affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again f ...
, was invited to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday 2018 to mark the centenary of the armistice, the first time a German representative had been present at the commemorations.
The
funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on 19 September 2022 included a procession through Central London. Military personnel, including members of the royal family who were in uniform, saluted the Cenotaph as the procession passed. King
Charles III
Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms.
Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...
led commemorations on Remembrance Sunday 2022 for the first time as monarch, though he had represented his mother at the Cenotaph since 2017 because of her growing frailty.
Remembrance services
The Cenotaph is the focal point for the
National Service of Remembrance
The National Service of Remembrance is held every year on Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph on Whitehall, London. It commemorates "the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and ...
held annually on
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 ...
, the closest Sunday to 11 November. In the Cenotaph's early years, the service was informal and crowds gathered round the memorial to pay their respects and lay tributes, but the ceremony gradually became more formal, and has changed little since the 1930s. Whitehall is closed to vehicle traffic and a two-minute silence is observed at 11:00am. After the silence, the crowd sings traditional hymns, accompanied by military musicians. The monarch and the prime minister (or their representatives) then lay wreaths at the Cenotaph, followed by other members of the royal family, politicians, and Commonwealth
high commissioners. Afterwards, serving military personnel, veterans' associations, and other organisations march past and lay their own wreaths. Until the Second World War, the service was held on 11 November. It was moved to a Sunday to avoid interrupting wartime production, and has been held on a Sunday ever since.
[Greenberg, p. 5.] According to
Paul Fussell
Paul Fussell Jr. (22 March 1924 – 23 May 2012) was an American cultural and literary historian, author and university professor. His writings cover a variety of topics, from scholarly works on eighteenth-century English literature to commentary ...
, an American literary historian specialising in the cultural effects of the world wars, "to sense the British obsession with the Great War, all that is necessary is to stand at the Cenotaph
..on any Remembrance Sunday and listen to the two minutes of silence", which he describes as "appropriately shocking in the context of the customary hum of traffic."
Other annual ceremonies are also held at the Cenotaph, such as commemorations by individual regiments, veterans' associations, the commemoration service organised by the
Western Front Association, the
Belgian Cenotaph Parade, the
Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women
The Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX; prior to 1939, the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen, and from 1928 to 1939, the Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Legion) is a non-political charitable organization that focuses on issues affecting ...
or anniversaries such as
Anzac Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...
(25 April). In 2000, relatives of soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice during the First World War joined the Remembrance Sunday parade for the first time, and in 2014 a representative of the Irish government laid a wreath on Remembrance Sunday for the first time, in memory of Irishmen who fought in the British armed forces in the First World War.
The
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
began broadcasting special radio programming for Armistice Day in 1923, and began broadcasting the events at the Cenotaph live from 1928. Radio broadcasting enabled the silence to be observed simultaneously across the country, and allowed millions of listeners to feel part of the ceremony. The BBC began broadcasting television pictures of the ceremony from 1937. The broadcast has run almost continually since its inception, interrupted only for the Second World War, making it one of the longest-running annual broadcasts in the world.
Heritage status
The Cenotaph was designated a Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
on 5 February 1970. Listing provides legal protection from unauthorised demolition or modification. Grade I is the highest possible grade, reserved for buildings of "exceptional" historical or architectural interest and applied to 2.5 per cent of listings. The Cenotaph is in the care of
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
, which manages historic buildings for the nation.
To mark the centenary of the First World War,
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 Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...
conducted research into war memorials with the aim of listing 2,500. As part of the project, they identified 44 freestanding war memorials in England designed by Lutyens, which they declared to be a national collection. All 44 are listed buildings and had their list entries enhanced with new research; five (including Southampton) were upgraded to Grade I on Remembrance Sunday 2014, joining the Cenotaph and the
Arch of Remembrance in
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...
.
Impact
On Lutyens
The renowned architectural historian
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...
described the Cenotaph as "the chief national war memorial".
Gavin Stamp
Gavin Mark Stamp (15 March 194830 December 2017) was a British writer, television presenter and architectural historian.
Education
Stamp was educated at Dulwich College in South London from 1959 to 1967 as part of the "Dulwich Experiment", then ...
, a British architectural historian and the author of Lutyens's entry in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from History of the British Isles, British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') ...
'', wrote that Lutyens's work commemorating the British war dead (the Cenotaph, his work with the IWGC and his memorial commissions elsewhere) was responsible for Lutyens's elevation to the status of a national figure.
A few days after the unveiling, Lloyd George wrote to Lutyens: "the Cenotaph, by its very simplicity, fittingly expresses the memory in which the people hold all those who so bravely fought and died" in the war. In 1921, Lutyens was awarded the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
' highest award, the
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture. It is gi ...
, for his body of work. Presenting the medal, the institute's president,
John Simpson, described the Cenotaph as "the most remarkable of all
utyens'screations
..austere yet gracious, technically perfect, it is the very expression of repressed emotion, of massive simplicity of purpose, of the qualities which mark those whom it commemorates and those who raised it."
According to Jane Brown, in her biography of the architect, Lutyens was faced with a "constant stream" of war memorial commissions from the unveiling of the temporary Cenotaph until at least 1924. He went on to design more than 130 war memorials and cemeteries, many influenced by his work on the Cenotaph. His Southampton Cenotaph was unveiled in 1920, while the permanent monument on Whitehall was still under construction. His later cenotaphs include Rochdale,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, and the
Midland Railway War Memorial in
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
. Lutyens also used the design for monuments in several of his cemeteries in Belgium and France for the IWGC, most famously at Étaples.
On art and literature
Examples of artworks featuring the Cenotaph include ''Immortal Shrine'' (1928) by
Will Longstaff (held at the
Australian War Memorial
The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
) and ''The Cenotaph (Morning of the Peace Procession)'' (1919) by
Sir William Nicholson. The latter work by Nicholson sold at auction at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
in London in 2018 for £62,500. The Cenotaph also featured on the reverse of the 1928 Armistice Day memorial medal by
Charles Doman. Examples of the Cenotaph featuring in artworks commemorating national events include the ceremonial paintings commissioned in 1920 by the government and the king from
Frank Owen Salisbury to mark the unveiling of the Cenotaph, titled ''The Passing of the Unknown Warrior, 11 November 1920''. A study for the work hangs in
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...
; the main work is in the
Ministry of Defence Main Building
The Ministry of Defence Main Building or MOD Main Building, also known as MOD Whitehall or originally as the Whitehall Gardens Building, is a Listed building, grade I listed government office building located on Whitehall in London. The building ...
off Whitehall.
The Cenotaph the Morning of the Peace Procession by Sir William Nicholson.jpg, The temporary cenotaph on the morning of the Peace Procession in 1919 by Sir William Nicholson, alt=Painting of a monument
Reverse of Armistice Day Memorial Medal 1928.jpg, The Cenotaph featured on the reverse of the 1928 Armistice Day memorial medal by Charles Doman, alt=The Cenotaph represented on a metal coin
A 1936 novel by Irene Rathbone with an anti-war theme, ''They Call it Peace'', concluded with a scene set at the Cenotaph in which two women complete pilgrimages to the monument, one to honour the dead and one feeling that the deaths were in vain. The cultural response to the Cenotaph also includes poetry such as "The Cenotaph" (1919) by
Charlotte Mew, "The Cenotaph in Whitehall" (1920) by
Max Plowman, "The Cenotaph" (1922) by
Ursula Roberts, "London Stone" (1923) by
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
, "At the Cenotaph" (1933) by
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World ...
, and "At the Cenotaph" (1935) by
Hugh MacDiarmid.
Laurence Binyon
Robert Laurence Binyon, Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (10 August 1869 – 10 March 1943) was an English poet, dramatist and art scholar. Born in Lancaster, Lancashire, Lancaster, England, his parents were Frederick Binyon, ...
's "
For the Fallen" (1914) is closely associated with the Cenotaph, having been recited at its unveiling, and commonly features in remembrance services, particularly the fourth stanza, which concludes: According to the literary historian Alex Moffett, the poems about the Cenotaph convey the different narratives of the First World War and the way in which it should be remembered, in much the same way that the monument itself is open to interpretation. The poetry also expresses the conflict between sombre commemoration of the dead and celebration of victory, "a tension that many have read within the Cenotaph itself".
On other war memorials

According to one study of British war memorials, the Cenotaph's "deceptively simple design and deliberately non-sectarian message ensured that its form would be adopted widely, with local variations". From its unveiling, the Cenotaph proved highly influential on other war memorials in Britain. The art historian
Alan Borg wrote that the Cenotaph was the "one memorial that proved to be more influential than any other". Several towns and cities erected war memorials based to some extent on Lutyens's design for Whitehall, though the term "cenotaph" came to be applied to almost any war memorial that was not itself a tomb. Lutyens designed several other cenotaphs in England and one in Wales, while replicas, of varying quality and accuracy, were built across Britain, along with many other monuments inspired to some extent by Lutyens's design.
[Borg, p. 96.] Examples include
Leeds War Memorial and
Glasgow Cenotaph.
[King, pp. 148–149.]
Replicas were also built in other countries of the British Empire, usually by local architects with input from Lutyens.
[Skelton, pp. 99–100.] The government of
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest.
Bermuda is an ...
opted for a two-thirds scale replica, unveiled in 1925, having paid Lutyens a fee for his plans and for advice on the site. A wooden replica was erected in
London, Ontario
London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...
, until a permanent version, a three-quarters scale replica of Whitehall's, could be erected in 1934.
Hong Kong's Cenotaph, unveiled in 1928, was built by a local architectural practice with input from Lutyens. The cenotaph at the
Auckland War Memorial Museum
The Auckland War Memorial Museum (), also known as Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand's most important museums and war memorials. Its neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building constructed in the 1920s and 1950s, stands on Observatory ...
in New Zealand is a copy of Whitehall's, though Lutyens was not involved in its inception—purchasing the designs from Lutyens was deemed too expensive so a local architect, Keith Draffin, sketched it from cinema newsreels. At least four other copies exist in New Zealand.
Several temporary replicas were built as placeholders until permanent memorials could be built, including one in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Canada, replaced with the
Old City Hall Cenotaph, and one in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, Australia, which stood until 1937, three years after the completion of the
Shrine of Remembrance
The Shrine of Remembrance (commonly referred to as The Shrine) is a war memorial in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia, located in Kings Domain on St Kilda Road. It was built to honour the men and women of Victoria who served in ...
.
[Lloyd, pp. 190–191.]
Borg observed that there was no agreed standard for war memorials, with wide variations in design, though Lutyens's Cenotaph and
Sir Reginald Blomfield's
Cross of Sacrifice
The Cross of Sacrifice is a Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth war memorial designed in 1918 by Sir Reginald Blomfield for the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). It is present in Commonwealth War grave ...
came closest.
Such was the impact of the Cenotaph that even Blomfield, a great rival of Lutyens, drew on it for his
Royal Air Force Memorial a short distance away on the bank of the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...
.
According to King, the Cenotaph's popularity with the public and its widespread use and adaptation by other artists, including professional rivals, showed the extent to which it became common property rather than a concept exclusive to Lutyens.
The Imperial War Museum's
War Memorials Register identified at least 55 replica or similar cenotaphs in Britain alone.
File:Southampton-Cenotaph.jpg, Southampton Cenotaph
File:Brenchley Gardens Cenotaph 0097.JPG, Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Cenotaph, Maidstone
File:Midland Railway War Memorial, Derby 01.jpg, Midland Railway War Memorial, Derby
File:Town Hall and Cenotaph, Rochdale.jpg, Rochdale Cenotaph
File:Manchester Cenotaph November 2014.jpg, Manchester Cenotaph
Manchester Cenotaph is a war memorial in St Peter's Square, Manchester, St Peter's Square, Manchester, England. Manchester was late in commissioning a World War I memorials, First World War memorial compared with most British towns and cities; t ...
File:Maindy Barracks Cenotaph.JPG, Welch Regimental War Memorial at Maindy Barracks
Maindy Barracks is a military installation in the Cathays district of Cardiff in Wales.
History
Maindy Barracks opened in 1877. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military force ...
, Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
See also
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World War I memorials
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Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster
There are over 9,000 Grade I listed buildings in England. This page is a list of these buildings in the City of Westminster.
Buildings
Bayswater
Belgravia
Buckingham Palace complex
Charing Cross / Trafalgar S ...
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Grade I listed war memorials in England
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List of public art in Whitehall
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List of works by Edwin Lutyens
Notes
References
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* Richardson, David. "A Changing Meaning for Armistice Day", in
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Citations
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cenotaph The
1920 sculptures
British military memorials and cemeteries
Buildings and structures completed in 1920
Cenotaphs in the United Kingdom
Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster
Grade I listed monuments and memorials
Limestone sculptures in the United Kingdom
War memorials by Edwin Lutyens
Whitehall
Works of Edwin Lutyens in England
World War I memorials in London
World War II memorials in London