Mells War Memorial

Mells War Memorial
United Kingdom
The memorial in June 2014
For servicemen from Mells killed in the First World War
Unveiled	26 June 1921
Location	51°14′26″N 2°23′22″W / 51.240429°N 2.389446°W / 51.240429; -2.389446Coordinates: 51°14′26″N 2°23′22″W / 51.240429°N 2.389446°W / 51.240429; -2.389446 Selwood Street, Mells, Somerset
Designed by	Sir Edwin Lutyens
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Mells War Memorial
Designated	1 January 1969
Reference no.	1058315

Mells War Memorial is a First World War memorial by Sir Edwin Lutyens in the village of Mells in the Mendip Hills of Somerset, south-western England. Unveiled in 1921, the memorial is one of multiple buildings and structures Lutyens designed in Mells. His friendship with two prominent families in the area, the Horners and the Asquiths, led to multiple commissions, including memorials to sons from the families killed in the war. Lutyens toured the village with local dignitaries in search of a suitable site for the war memorial, after which he was prompted to remark "all their young men were killed".

The memorial takes the form of a marble column topped by a sculpture of Saint George slaying a dragon, an image Lutyens used on tow other public war memorials. At the base of the column, the names of the village's war dead are inscribed on stone panels. The memorial is flanked by identical rubble walls in local stone, on top of which grows a yew hedge. Low stone benches protrude from the walls to allow wreaths to be laid. Additional panels were fixed to the wall after the Second world War to commemorate that conflict. The memorial was unveiled on 26 June 1921 by Brigadier-General Arthur Asquith, whose brother is among those commemorated on it. It is a grade II* listed building and since 2015 has been part of a "national collection" of Lutyens' war memorials.

In the aftermath of the First World War, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Amongst the most prominent designers of memorials was 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; 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' civic memorials.