Guards Memorial

The memorial in 2011

The memorial stands to the west side of Horse Guards Parade

The Guards Memorial, also known as the Guards Division War Memorial,^[1] is an outdoor war memorial located on the west side of Horse Guards Road, opposite the Horse Guards Parade in London, United Kingdom. It commemorates the war dead from the Guards Division and related units during the First World War, and of the Household Division in the Second World War and other conflicts since 1918.

The cenotaph memorial was designed by H. Chalton Bradshaw. It includes a broad squat white Portland stone obelisk 38 feet (12 m) high standing on a white stone base with three steps. On a raised platform to the east side of the memorial, facing Horse Guards Parade, are five large bronze sculptures by Gilbert Ledward, one representing each of the Foot Guards Regiments, standing easy with their rifles above stone carvings showing the badge of each regiment, each slightly larger than life size, about 7 feet 3 inches (2.21 m) in high. The statues are modelled on serving guardsmen: Sergeant R. Bradshaw MM of the Grenadier Guards, Lance Corporal J. S. Richardson of the Coldstream Guards, Guardsman J. McDonald of the Scots Guards, Guardsman Simon McCarthy of the Irish Guards (with legs modelled by another guardsman, Lance Sergeant W. J. Kidd) and Guardsman A. Comley of the Welsh Guards. ^[2] The other three sides each bear a bronze panel, one to either side depicting military equipment and the one to the rear depicting artillery in action. The statues and panels were cast by the William Morris Art Bronze Foundry using bronze taken from German guns melted down after the First World War.

Above the five statues, the cenotaph also bears an inscription written by Rudyard Kipling, whose only son John was killed in action while serving the Irish Guards at the Battle of Loos in September 1915: "To the Glory of God // And in the memory of the // Officers Warrant Officers // Non Commissioned Officers & // Guardsmen of His Majesty's // Regiments of Foot Guards // who gave their lives for their // King and Country during the // Great War 1914–1918 and of the // Officers Warrant Officers // Non-Commissioned Officers and // Men of the Household Cavalry // Royal Regiment of Artillery // Corps of Royal Engineers // Royal Army Service Corps Royal // Medical Corps and other // Units who while serving the // Guards Division in France & // Belgium 1915–1918 fell with them in // the fight for the World's Freedom."

Above the main inscription is an incised cross between bands of horizontal incised lines, and lower down is a second inscription: "This monument // was erected by their friends and comrades". Further inscriptions on the sides of the cenotaph record the units involved, and the west side, below another cross, records their battle honours.

The monument was built by the Birmingham Guild at a cost of around £22,000, with the lettering cut by Ernest Gillick. It was unveiled by Field Marshal Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn at a ceremony on 16 October 1926, accompanied by the 100-year-old veteran of the Crimean War General Sir George Higginson, with a dedication by Rev. H. J. Fleming, who became senior chaplain of the Guards Division when it was formed in 1915, and a benediction by the Chaplain-General to the Forces, Rev. Alfred Jarvis, and a march-past by 15,000 serving and former guardsmen. The memorial suffered bomb damage in the Second World War, and some was left unrepaired as "honourable scars".^[3]

After World War II, an inscription was added below the statues to commemorate those who died between 1939 and 1945:^[4] "This memorial also commemorates all those members // of the Household Division who died in the Second World War // and in the Service of their Country since 1918."

It received Grade II listing in 1970,^[5] and was promoted to Grade I in October 2014.^[6]

• 
  The memorial in 2009, looking northeast towards the Horse Guards Parade and the Admiralty
• 
  Wreaths laid before the five bronze statues in 2009

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guards Memorial, London.

• 1926 in art
• Grade I listed buildings in the City of Westminster
• Grade I listed war memorials in England
• World War I memorials

References

Public art and memorials in London
Statues	Monarchs Richard I Charles I Charles II James II Anne St Paul's Westminster George III George IV George V George VI Others Alanbrooke Becket Bolívar Brunel Burns Cambridge Canning Chaplin Churchill Clive Cook Cromwell Derby Devonshire Disraeli Frere Freud Gagarin Gandhi Greathead Haig Havelock Herbert Holmes Irving Jenner Kitchener Lawson Lincoln Lloyd George Mandela Moore Montgomery Mountbatten Myddelton Napier Newman Nightingale Orwell Outram Palmerston Peel Raikes Reynolds Roberts San Martín Shakespeare Slim Smuts Trajan Wallenberg Washington Wellington City Hyde Park Corner Wesley St Paul's Shoreditch Westminster White Winehouse Wolseley
Memorials	7 July Memorial Albert Memorial Queen Alexandra Memorial Anti-Air War Memorial Bali Bombings Memorial Bazalgette Memorial Bolan's Rock Shrine Breathing Bromhead Memorial Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial Edith Cavell Memorial Cheylesmore Memorial Agatha Christie Memorial Donne Memorial Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross (Charing Cross) Faraday Memorial George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial Golden Boy of Pye Corner Grace Gates Memorial to the Great Exhibition Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice Hogg Memorial Holocaust Memorial Kennedy Memorial Kindertransport – The Arrival Lister Memorial The Monument National Firefighters Memorial National Police Memorial Nelson's Column Pankhurst Memorial Queen Elizabeth Gate Suffragette Memorial Victoria Memorial Twelve Responses to Tragedy ("Yalta Memorial") Wellington Arch Wellington Monument Whittington Stone A Conversation with Oscar Wilde Duke of York Column
War memorials	Pre-WWI Animals in War Crimean War Gurkhas (1816–) Marble Arch New Zealand Campaign (1863–64) Royal Marines (1899–) Siege of Cádiz Westminster School WWI WWII Australia Baltic Exchange Battle of Britain Belgium Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red Bromley Canada Cavalry The Cenotaph Chindits Chingford Chipping Barnet Civil Service Rifles Cockfosters Croydon La Délivrance Enfield Town (3 memorials) Finchley Flanders Fields Memorial Garden Fulham Golders Green Great Eastern Railway Great Western Railway Guards Division Hampton Wick Hendon Hornsey Imperial Camel Corps Islington London and North Western Railway London Troops Machine Gun Corps Memorial Gates Merchant Navy Monken Hadley New Barnet New Zealand Paddington Poland Poplar Rainham Royal Air Force RAF Bomber Command Royal Artillery Royal Fusiliers Royal Naval Division Royal Tank Regiment South Africa (Richmond) South Suburban Gas Company Southwark Submarines Women of World War II Wood Green Post-WWII Korean War
Fountains	Buxton Memorial Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Diana Fountain, Bushy Park Diana Fountain, Green Park Fawcett Memorial The Horses of Helios Guilford Place Matilda Fountain Revolving Torsion Roehampton St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene Shaftesbury Memorial ("Eros") Lady Henry Somerset Memorial Victoria Park
Murals	Brixton Cable Street Sutton twin towns
Other works	ArcelorMittal Orbit The Arch 1979–1980 The Barbican Muse Big 4 Boadicea and Her Daughters Bull The Burghers of Calais Christ Child Crystal Palace Dinosaurs The Diver Dolphin lamp standards Dragon boundary marks Elfin Oak Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square Fulcrum The Gold Smelters Homage to Leonardo Icarus Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 Labyrinth London Noses London Pride The Messenger Millennium Dial The Naked Ladies Nike Old Father Time Paternoster Paternoster Vents Physical Energy Platforms Piece Quantum Cloud The Queen's Beasts Rush of Green St Paul's Cross Single Form (Memorial) A Slice of Reality Slipstream South Bank Lion Still Water Sutton Heritage Mosaic Traffic Light Tree Winged Figure World World Cup Sculpture The Young Lovers Three Standing Figures 1947 Talking Statues Works formerly in London
Blue plaques	Camden Kensington and Chelsea City of Westminster
By borough	City of Westminster Hyde Park Kensington Gardens (partly in Kensington and Chelsea) Paddington St Marylebone Architectural sculpture City of London (not a London borough) Barking and Dagenham Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth
Organisations	Art on the Underground London Mural Preservation Society Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association
Statues in London on Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°30′16″N 0°07′46″W / 51.5044°N 0.1295°W / 51.5044; -0.1295