29th Division War Memorial
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 29th Division War Memorial | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Interactive map of 29th Division War Memorial | |
| Location | Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, England |
| Coordinates | 52°21′21″N 1°23′32″W / 52.35592°N 1.39226°W |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | 29th Division War Memorial |
| Designated | 25 August 1987 |
| Reference no. | 1034880 |
The 29th Division War Memorial is a war memorial beside the junction of the A45 and the B4455 near Stretton-on-Dunsmore, near Rugby, Warwickshire. It commemorates the service of the British 29th Division during the First World War. The memorial became a Grade II listed building in 1987, upgraded to Grade II* in 2015, and it is described by Historic England as "probably the most significant single memorial in Britain associated with the Gallipoli campaign".
The 29th Division was assembled in the East Midlands from late 1914, from largely regular army units returned from garrison duty in various parts of the British Empire. Approximately 18,000 servicemen paraded near Rugby on 12 March 1915, formed into a marching column approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long which was reviewed by the King, George V. The column took over an hour to pass the King, who took the salute mounted on his horse Delhi.
Soon afterwards, the 29th Division left England for war service abroad: with the Royal Naval Division, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the French Corps expéditionnaire d'Orient, it formed the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915.
The British forces withdrew in January 1916 and the 29th Division was redeployed to France, serving on the Western Front, including the first day of the Battle of the Somme, and also at the Battle of Arras and the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), and then was part of the British Army of the Rhine that occupied parts of Germany after the Armistice. By the time it was disbanded in March 1919, the division had suffered some 94,000 casualties.
