Fordham War Memorial
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
near
| Fordham War Memorial | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
 | |
| For men from Fordham killed in the First World War | |
| Unveiled | 7 August 1921 |
| Location | 52°18′41″N 0°23′26″E / 52.311466°N 0.39055°E Carter Street, Fordham, Cambridgeshire near |
| Designed by | Sir Edwin Lutyens/George Frampton |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Fordham War Memorial |
| Designated | 31 January 1984 |
| Reference no. | 1331743 |
Fordham War Memorial is a First World War memorial in the village of Fordham in Cambridgeshire in eastern England. The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens with sculpture by Sir George Frampton and closely resembles Hove War Memorial in East Sussex, which was also a collaboration between Lutyens and Frampton. It was unveiled in 1921 and is today a grade II listed building.[1]
In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed the Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations, as well as the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the Stone of Remembrance which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several of Lutyens's civic war memorials. Fordam's memorial is unusual among Lutyens' works in that it features a bronze statue of Saint George, a feature shared only with Hove War Memorial in East Sussex.[1]
As in many places, a war memorial committee was established in Fordham in June 1919 to decide on commemoration of the village's dead. The committee initially favoured a proposal for a memorial portico at the entrance to the village cemetery, which would contain tablets engraved with the names of the dead. This proposal was shelved when a Mrs Dunn-Gardner from Fordham Abbey donated a five-acre plot of land in a central area of the village for use as a park and a setting for a war memorial, and the committee commissioned Lutyens to design a monument to fit the space.[1] While many of Lutyens' commissions for war memorials originated from friends or former clients in the area, it does not appear that the architect had any prior connection to Fordham.[2]
