Monument

Cenotaph

Erection date: 11/11/1920

Inscription

{On the south face:}
MCMXIV {1914}
The glorious dead

{On the north face:}
MCMXIX {1919}

{On the east face:}
MCMXLV {1945}

{On the west face:}
MCMXXXIX {1939}

"Cenotaph" is Greek for "empty tomb".   The shape is a plain pylon with a coffin on top.  This memorial by Lutyens, for the first anniversary of the 1919 Armistice, was originally a temporary structure in plaster and wood, but it proved so popular that it was reconstructed in Portland stone as a permanent memorial. The inscription for WW2 was unveiled in 1946 by George VI. There is an exact replica in London, Canada.

See Veterans UK for lots of information.

We've read that the planes are subtly tapered and meet at a point 1,000ft in the air.

Site: Cenotaph (1 memorial)

SW1, Whitehall

Our photos were taken on 12 November 2009.

About this memorial, in his 1928 People's Album of London Statues, Osbert Sitwell writes: "we were compelled to choose a monument without any sculptured decoration on it, so atrocious would have been the detail had it been entrusted to a bad academic sculptor, so great the outcry had the commission gone to a good modern one."

Vintage Everyday reproduces some notorious photographs taken at the Cenotaph during the two minute silence on Armistice Day in 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1924. These photographs were produced by Ada Deane, the 'spirit photographer', and purported to show the spirits of the dead amongst the crowds at the ceremony, including some identifiable people, whose faces happened to have recently appeared in newspapers.  She was widely denounced as a fraud but some chose to support her, including Arthur Conan Doyle.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Cenotaph

Subjects commemorated i

World War 1

We'd always assumed that this war was known as the Great War until WW2 came a...

Read More

World War 2

Sorry, we've done no research on WW2, it's just too big a subject. But do vis...

Read More

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Cenotaph

Created by i

Sir Edwin Lutyens

Architect. Born at 16 Onslow Square. Specialised in English country houses. C...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

All Saints Poplar WW1 memorial

All Saints Poplar WW1 memorial

E14, Newby Street, All Saints church

Tower Hamlets local list gives: "The memorial which is inscribed “TO OUR GLORIOUS DEAD, 1914 – 1918” was unveiled in 1922 by the Suffraga...

1 subject commemorated
St John Horsleydown - WW1 memorial - cross

St John Horsleydown - WW1 memorial - cross

SE1, Fair Street, St John's Churchyard

Note that the arrangement of the names on the back has been well-designed: they are in alphabetical sequence and fit neatly onto the ston...

War dead | WW1
16 subjects commemorated
Smithfield war memorial

Smithfield war memorial

EC1, Grand Avenue, Smithfield Market

This memorial was first installed in 1921 for WW1. In 2005 it was refurbished and the red granite plinth with its plaque were added, all ...

War dead | WW1
214 subjects commemorated, 8 creators
St John's Hampstead WW1 memorial

St John's Hampstead WW1 memorial

NW3, Church Row

{There are 5 panels alternating with a balustrade. On the central panel, inside a wreath:} Pro Patria {And below that, on the front of ...

War dead | WW1
90 subjects commemorated
Royal Australian Air Force remembrance stone

Royal Australian Air Force remembrance stone

SW11, Battersea Park

Above this plaque is a black stone carved with the RAAF badge. The plaque refers to "the Australian Memorial Garden and House". The Gar...

3 subjects commemorated, 3 creators

Previously viewed

Edgar Allan Poe - N16 - Plaque 2

Edgar Allan Poe - N16 - Plaque 2

N16, Stoke Newington Church Street, 172

Poe Unveiled by Steven Berkoff on 4 June 2011. The Flicker Club The Edgar Allan Poe Society

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators