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TO WWI NAMESThe Thiepval Memorial
The Thiepval Memorial - the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme - bears the names of more than 72,000 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave.
The memorial also serves as an Anglo-French Battle Memorial in recognition of the joint nature of the 1916 offensive and a small cemetery containing equal numbers of Commonwealth and French graves lies at the foot of the memorial. The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled by the Prince of Wales, in the presence of the President of France, on 31 July 1932.
Further information and photographs can be found on the following web sites:
http://battlefields1418.50megs.com/thiepval_memorial.htm
The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave.
The design, by Sir Edward Lutyens, consists of a cloister, 25 feet highand 380 feet long, built up on Doric columns and faces west. In the broaderpart of the site the colonnade returns to form a recessed and open court,terminated by an apse. The names of the casualties are carved on stonepanels fixed to the cloister walls.
Further information and photographs can be found on the following web sites:
http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Overseas/arras.html
http://www.webmatters.net/cwgc/faubourg_amiens.htm
The Tyne Cot Memorial is one of four memorials to the missing in Belgian Flanders which cover the area known as the Ypres Salient. The Memorial now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after 16th August 1917 are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war.
The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage and F V Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett in July 1927.
Further information and photographs can be found on the following web sites:
http://www.scmetcalfe.btinternet.co.uk/pages/tynecot.htm
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~dccfarr/tyne.htm
The PLOEGSTEERT MEMORIAL commemorates more than 11,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in this sector during the First World War and have no known grave. Those commemorated by the memorial did not die in major offensives, such as those which took place around Ypres to the north, or Loos to the south. Most were killed in the course of the day-to-day trench warfare which characterised this part of the line, or in small scale set engagements, usually carried out in support of the major attacks taking place elsewhere.
The cemetery, cemetery extension and memorial were designed by H Chalton Bradshaw, with sculpture by Gilbert Ledward.
Further information and photographs can be found on the following web sites:
http://www.harboro.ndirect.co.uk/ploegste.htm
http://www.1914-1918.net/sacredground/ypres/ploegsteert.htm
Within the grounds of Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery, which is west of Haucourt on the north side of the main road, will be found the VIS-EN-ARTOIS MEMORIAL. This Memorial bears the names of over 9,000 men who fell in the period from 8 August 1918 to the date of the Armistice in the Advance to Victory in Picardy and Artois, between the Somme and Loos, and who have no known grave.
They belonged to the forces of Great Britain and Ireland and South Africa; the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand forces being commemorated on other memorials to the missing. The Memorial consists of a screen wall in three parts. The middle part of the screen wall is concave and carries stone panels on which names are carved. It is 26 feet high flanked by pylons 70 feet high.
The Stone of Remembrance stands exactly between the pylons and behind it, in the middle of the screen, is a group in relief representing St George and the Dragon. The flanking parts of the screen wall are also curved and carry stone panels carved with names. Each of them forms the back of a roofed colonnade; and at the far end of each is a small building.
Further information and photographs can be found on the following web sites:
http://www.scmetcalfe.btinternet.co.uk/pages/vis.htm
http://www.1914-1918.net/sacredground/Arras/vis.htm
The Loos Memorial commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay, and who have no known grave.
The Memorial forms the side and back of Dud Corner Cemetery where over 1,700 officers and men are buried, the great majority of whom fell in the Battle of Loos. Dud Corner Cemetery, which stands almost on the site of a German strong point, the Lens Road Redoubt, captured by the 15th (Scottish) Division on the first day of the battle, is located about 1 kilometre west of the village, on the N43, the main Lens to Bethune road.
Research by Heather Faulkes