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The
Cenotaph.....................cont
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When originally designed, the only inscriptions were "THE GLORIOUS
DEAD " on the western face and the dates MCMXIV (1914) and MCMXIX
(1919) above the wreaths on the north and south faces. When Lutyens
died on New Year's Day in 1944, he left word that should the Cenotaph
be adopted as a national memorial also for the dead of the Second World
War, it was his wish that nothing further should be added to the structure,
other than the inscribing on it of the appropriate dates. At the commencement
of the ceremony on 10th November 1946, King George VI unveiled the
dates MCMXXXIX (1939) and MCMXLV (1945) which had been inscribed on
the upper portions of the east and west faces. |
At the end of the Second World War, the War Memorials
Advisory Council headed by Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, mounted a
campaign for a national memorial to the fallen of that war and sent out a
questionnaire to its member organisations canvassing their opinion. Major
General Sir Fabian Ware, founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission replied:
'My personal view is that new dates only should be added to the Cenotaph,
and I should deprecate any competing monument or any structural addition
to the Cenotaph (which would be aesthetically unpardonable). At the same
time, it seems to me almost impossible to pick out a beneficient object which
would command universal assent'. [24] This
reply from 'the Great Commemorator' was sufficient to end the campaign to
erect another national war memorial in this form. Thus the Cenotaph became
the symbol of the nation's loss for both World Wars. Apart from the national
ceremony held there each November, at most weekends a ceremony of some kind
will be taking place and as the passer-by will observe, it is bedecked with
wreaths all year round. It is cleaned every fortnight and wreaths are removed
after the same period.
[24] Royal
Society of Arts archive Ref PR.GE/117/10/14.
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