Diamond War Memorial

Diamond War Memorial
Northern Ireland
For soldiers who died and served in World War I and World War II
Unveiled	23 June 1927 (1927-06-23)
Location	54°59′44″N 7°19′19″W / 54.99556°N 7.32194°W / 54.99556; -7.32194Coordinates: 54°59′44″N 7°19′19″W / 54.99556°N 7.32194°W / 54.99556; -7.32194 Derry
Designed by	Sydney March and Vernon March
To our honoured dead and those who served 1914–1918 1939–1945

Erected in 1927, the Diamond War Memorial is located on The Diamond in the centre of Derry, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is dedicated to the citizens of the city who lost their lives while in military service during World War I.

In early 1919, the public leaders of the city of Derry first considered initiating a fund to erect a memorial to the fallen of the Great War. The memorial would be composed of granite or bronze and would have the names of the deceased inscribed upon it. The City War Memorial Fund was established in February 1919. It required several years to obtain the necessary funding from charitable contributions. By the sixth anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, some Derry citizens became disgruntled by the slow progress. However, the following year, in April 1925, the design and location of the memorial were approved by the city's War Memorial Committee. However, they still faced the hurdle of obtaining consent from the Londonderry Corporation, which was obtained after some initial disagreement with regard to the proposed location of the monument.

The Diamond War Memorial was designed by siblings Sydney March and Vernon March. The brothers came from a large family that included eight children who became artists and established a studio at their family home of Goddendene in Farnborough, Kent, England. The monument was sculpted by one of the brothers, Vernon March, who, together with his siblings, was also responsible for monuments such as the National War Memorial of Ottawa. Vernon was considered to be a prodigy, with the distinction of being the youngest exhibitor in the Royal Academy of Arts, having been just 16 years old when his statue of Psyche was shown and purchased on the third day of the exhibition. Vernon March also sculpted miniatures of the Diamond War Memorial that are housed within Saint Columb's Cathedral in Derry. The Memorial is of bronze and Portland stone, a limestone mined from the quarries of the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. The memorial has a height of almost forty feet and a width of twenty-seven feet. A centre monument, including a winged victory statue holding high a laurel wreath, has the names of the fallen engraved in raised letters on four sides. Near the base of the memorial, there are two smaller bronze monuments, a soldier on one side representing the Army and a sailor on the other side representing the Navy. The walled city of Derry, nicknamed the Maiden City, has four main gates, with roads that lead to a central Diamond, the heart of the city. The cenotaph is located in the centre of The Diamond.