British War Memorials Committee

The British War Memorials Committee was a British Government body that throughout 1918 was responsible for the commissioning of artworks to create a memorial to the First World War. The Committee was formed in February 1918 when the Department of Information, which had been responsible for war-time propaganda and also operated a war artists scheme, became the Ministry of Information with Lord Beaverbrook as its Minister. Beaverbrook had been running, from London, the Canadian Government's scheme to commission contemporary art during the First World War and believed Britain would benefit from a similar project. Beaverbrook wanted the British War Memorials Committee to change the direction of Government-sponsored art away from propaganda of short term value only during the conflict to a collection with a much longer lasting national value. Arnold Bennett, alongside Beaverbrook, was the driving force behind the BWMC and was instrumental in ensuring young artists, including those seen as modernist or avant-garde, were commissioned by the Committee over older British artists, many of whom were associated with the Royal Academy.

The original members of the Committee were,

Also William Orpen and Henry Tonks also acted as advisors to the Committee.

Robert Ross sugggested that by ensuring the artists worked to a set of standard size canvases they would produce pictures with a unified identity that would be appropriate for a national memorial. Ross suggested two sizes, 120 by 144 inches based on The Surrender of Breda by Velasquez and 72 by 125 inches, the size of The Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello. Smaller pictures would also be commissioned and an alternative large size, of 72 by 86 inches would be acceptable. In addition four 'super-pictures' of 20 feet long by 7 feet high were to be commissioned on the theme of cooperation between Britain and its allies. The paintings were to be housed in a national Hall of Remembrance which would be built in London. The architect Charles Holden was recalled from France, where he was working for the Imperial War Graves Commission, to design the building. Muirhead Bone described the structure, which was never built, as a "kind of Pavilion", surrounded by a garden, with a main gallery leading to an oratory with a dedication to the "coming Brotherhood of Man for which we all pray."

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