On 4 August 2014
it was exactly 100 years since Britain entered the First World War. Within
government the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has lead plans to build
a commemoration fitting of this significant milestone in world history. Most of
us don’t know what our families were doing in 1914. Many – in schools, the
local library and online – will be encouraged to find out. The British
centenary will be a distinctly civic affair, to an extent unlikely to be
matched in other countries. There will be great state occasions as the Queen
hosts presidents and prime ministers at Glasgow Cathedral. In Liverpool we will
see the Little Girl Giant and her canine companion Xolo return to the city's
streets from 23 to 27 July. to commemorate World War One. They last appeared in
2012 in Sea Odyssey which was watched by 800,000 people.
English Heritage
expects to list up to 2,500 war memorials between now and 2019, Starting with
the Liverpool Cenotaph. The Liverpool Cenotaph was listed at Grade II in 1952
but English Heritage has reassessed its architectural and historic significance
and believes it should be recognised as one of the most important war memorials
in the country. Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest, sometimes
considered to be internationally important; only 2.5% of listed buildings are
Grade I. The only other two Grade I war memorials are in Victoria Park in
Leicester, first listed in 1955 and the Cenotaph in Whitehall, first listed in
1970. Both were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The Liverpool Cenotaph was
designed by Lionel Budden with sculptural work by Herbert Tyson Smith and
unveiled in 1930. In the form of a vast altar, it is decorated with bronze
reliefs which are among the finest responses to remembrance ever created. One
depicts massed ranks marching off to war. The other, unflinching in its
depiction of the scale of loss and grief, shows mourners in contemporary dress
pay their respects, their solemn faces downcast and an elderly man stifles a
sob.
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| Liverpool war memorial |
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| © Imperial War Museums |
Genuine battle
photographs of men under fire are rare. The one above shows the men of
the 1/10th Battalion, King’s (Liverpool Regiment), known as the Liverpool
Scottish, in the middle of an attack at Bellewaarde outside Ypres on 16 June
1915. It was taken by Private Fred Fyfe, a pre-war press photographer as
he lay wounded.
Links
By Robert F
Edwards
