Parliamentary War Memorial

The Parliamentary War Memorial, also known as the Recording Angel Memorial, is a stone sculpture in Westminster Hall, unveiled in 1922, which commemorates the members of both Houses of Parliament of the United Kingdom who died in the First World War. It names 22 members of the House of Commons, 20 members of the House of Lords, and 9 senior members of staff, together with another 94 sons of members and officers of the House of Commons, who lost their lives in the war. (Sons of peers and of officers of the House of Lords are commemorated on the wooden panels of the House of Lords War Memorial in the Royal Gallery.) Above the memorial is a large stained glass window which commemorates members and staff of both Houses who died in the Second World War.

Planning for the Parliamentary War Memorial began in July 1917. A parliamentary committee chose a site below a large gothic window in St Stephen's Porch, at the south end of Westminster Hall. Designs were sought from Walter Tapper, George Frampton and Bertram Mackennal. A design by Australian sculptor Bertram Mackennal (1863–1931) was chosen, modifying an existing Victorian screen by adding the elements that now form the central section of the memorial: a winged figure representing the recording angel, flanked by two arched panels bearing names of the fallen. Mackennal's design also include a cupola above, with a Gothic arch and bronze statuettes of the patron saints of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The two Portland stone panels and angel were inserted into the existing screen of Caen stone in 1921.

Modifications were made in 1922, removing the mullions from the flanking sections of the Victorian screen to insert six further panels, three on either side, to record the names of the sons of MPs and officers of the House of Commons killed in the war. Columns separate the central section from the flanking sections, each topped by a gilt-bronze statuette: one representing the virtue of Faith and the other Fortitude. The extended memorial was unveiled by Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII) in 1922.

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