Royal Artillery Memorial
| Royal Artillery Memorial | |
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| United Kingdom | |
The memorial at Hyde Park Corner
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| For casualties of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in the First World War |
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| Unveiled | 1925 |
| Location |
51°30′09″N 0°09′07″W / 51.5025°N 0.151944°WCoordinates: 51°30′09″N 0°09′07″W / 51.5025°N 0.151944°W London, SW1 |
| Designed by | Charles Sargeant Jagger, Lionel Pearson |
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In Proud Remembrance of the Forty-Nine Thousand & Seventy-Six of All Ranks of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Who Gave Their Lives for King And Country in the Great War 1914—1919
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The Royal Artillery Memorial is a stone memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London, dedicated to casualties in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in the First World War. The memorial was designed by Charles Jagger and Lionel Pearson, and features a giant sculpture of a BL 9.2-inch Mk I howitzer upon a large plinth of Portland stone, with stone reliefs depicting scenes from the conflict. Four bronze figures of artillery men are positioned around the outside of the memorial. The memorial is famous for its realist contrast with other First World War memorials, such as the Cenotaph designed by Edwin Lutyens, and attracted much public debate during the 20th century.
The First World War, which took place between 1914 and 1918, saw the extensive use of artillery, particularly on the Western Front. Technical advances, combined with the relatively static nature of trench warfare, made these guns a key element of the conflict: over half the casualties in the war were caused by artillery. Artillery guns and their crews were themselves targets, however, and 49,076 members of the Royal Artillery died during the conflict. In the years after the war, many former servicemen, including gunners, found the scale of the losses difficult to deal with, or felt that the events challenged their trust in the political leadership that had led them into the war. Visual reminders of the conflict were often avoided: mutilated servicemen, for example, were banned in the 1920s from joining in veterans' marches, and those with facial injuries often hid them in public.
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