Between 1923 and 1936, the Imperial War Graves Commission erected a series of memorial tablets in French and Belgian cathedrals to commemorate the British Empire dead of the First World War. The tablets were erected in towns in which British Army or Empire troops had been quartered.
The prototype commission memorial tablet, placed in Amiens Cathedral in 1923 alongside tablets previously erected to other Empire troops, was dedicated to the 600,000 dead of Britain and Ireland. The subsequent design of the commission's tablet brought together the British Royal Coat of Arms with those of India and the imperial dominions: South Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Newfoundland. The tablet's inscription, written by Rudyard Kipling, referred to the "million dead" of the Empire. Produced by Reginald Hallward to a design by architect H. P. Cart de Lafontaine, the tablets were erected in twenty-eight cathedrals and churches, twenty-three in France and five in Belgium, with the bilingual inscriptions in each country in English and French, and English and Latin respectively. They were unveiled by a range of dignitaries, including members of the royal family, diplomats, politicians, and British Army generals who had commanded troops on the Western Front.
A tablet of the same design, but with an inscription referring to the dead buried in the "lands of our Allies", was unveiled in Westminster Abbey in 1926 and later installed in what became St George's Chapel. Replicas or copies of the Westminster Abbey tablet were distributed to churches or cathedrals in Hamilton and Vancouver in Canada, and in Baghdad in Iraq. Copies or reproductions are located at the museum at Delville Wood in France, in Fremantle, Australia, and in Liverpool, UK. Versions of the prototype Amiens tablet and the standard tablet used in France are held at the headquarters of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, UK.
Origin and design
The Imperial War Graves Commission had been established by Royal Charter in 1917. Following the cessation of hostilities in 1918 at the end of the First World War, the commission continued developing its plans to commemorate the war dead of both the British Army and troops from the Empire and its Dominions. The commission had responsibility for war graves, but it was less clear who had responsibility for memorials. The commission drew a distinction between individual commemoration of the dead and more general monuments such as battle exploits and regimental memorials. These latter were to be dealt with by a Battle Exploits Memorial Committee established in 1918 by the British Army's Adjutant-General. By 1919, a Cabinet-level desire for memorials to the army as a whole led to the establishment of the National Battlefield Memorials Committee, chaired by the Earl of Midleton.
As plans progressed, it became apparent that the proposals for national battlefield memorials would overlap with those made by the commission for memorials to the missing. In 1921, rather than fund two separate schemes, the responsibility for general war memorials was transferred from the National Battlefield Memorials Committee to the Imperial War Graves Commission. One of the proposals taken up from the committee and acted upon by the commission was the recommendation that commemorative tablets be "erected in French cathedrals which had particular associations with British troops during the war". The commission's committee to co-ordinate this consisted of Lieutenant General Sir George Macdonogh, Sir Herbert Creedy (Secretary to the War Office), the commission's literary advisor Rudyard Kipling, and the commission's founder and vice-chairman Fabian Ware. The design was by commission architect H. P. Cart de Lafontaine, with the tablets produced by sculptor Reginald Hallward.
Cart de Lafontaine spoke fluent French, and in addition to designing the tablets he negotiated with the cathedral authorities. The scheme was expanded to include cathedrals in Belgium as well. In some cases, the cathedrals had been badly damaged, and the placement of tablets was delayed until reconstruction had been completed. Other considerations included the placement of the tablet in the available space within the cathedrals, with some using a horizontal design instead of a vertical one. The prototype tablet, produced for Amiens Cathedral, featured the Royal Coat of Arms and an inscription that referred to the armies of Great Britain and Ireland.
All the later commission tablets used a design that differed from the prototype tablet in that it brought together elements from all the dominions and India. This standard design, following consultations with the College of Arms, had the Royal Coat of Arms surrounded by the shields of the coats of arms of the five Dominions: the Union of South Africa, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, Canada and the Dominion of Newfoundland. The Indian Empire was represented by the insignia of the Order of the Star of India and its motto 'Heaven's light our guide'. Some designs of the tablet referred to 'The United Kingdom', while others referred to 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'. The text within the main design includes the mottoes used in the Royal Coat of Arms: Honi soit qui mal y pense and Dieu et mon droit. The material used was gilded and coloured gesso set in a stone surround. Other design elements included a banded laurel-like border with carved roses in each corner and one at bottom centre. Some designs differed in the placement of the names of the dominions, and some varied in the colours used. The Westminster tablet is 5 feet 10 inches by 2 feet 10 inches (177.8 cm by 86.36 cm). The Ypres tablet is 266 cm by 127 cm.
Locations and unveilings The following table lists the known locations, unveiling dates and other details for the commission's cathedral and church tablets in France, Belgium and other countries between 1923 and 1936.
+ Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World WarCathedral or churchTown or cityCountryDate unveiledUnveiled byReferences Amiens Cathedral Amiens France Duke of Connaught Notre Dame Paris France Prince of Wales Le Mans Cathedral Le Mans France Horace Smith-Dorrien Rouen Cathedral Rouen France Nevil Macready Orléans Cathedral Orléans France William Birdwood Marseille Cathedral Marseille France William Birdwood Nancy Cathedral Nancy France Thomas Dodds Beauvais Cathedral Beauvais France Victor Gordon Nantes Cathedral Nantes France Victor Gordon Meaux Cathedral Meaux France Sidney Clive Bayeux Cathedral Bayeux France Horace Smith-Dorrien Westminster Abbey London United Kingdom Prince of Wales St Waudru Collegiate Church Mons Belgium Nevil Macready St Rumbold's Cathedral Mechelen Belgium George Macdonogh Notre-Dame de Boulogne Boulogne France Nevil Macready Senlis Cathedral Senlis France Nevil Macready Laon Cathedral Laon France William Pulteney St Michael and St Gudula Brussels Belgium Douglas Haig Church of the Ascension Hamilton Canada John Morison Gibson Église Saint-Maurice Lille France Richard Haking Reims Cathedral Reims France – – – Alexander Godley Soissons Cathedral Soissons France – – – William Pulteney Saint-Vaast Church Béthune France – – – Edward Bulfin Cambrai Cathedral Cambrai France – – – – – – Saint-Quentin Basilica Saint-Quentin France – – – – – – St George's Church Baghdad Iraq – – – – – – Cathedral of Our Lady Antwerp Belgium George Dixon Grahame Saint-Omer Cathedral Saint-Omer France Nevil Macready Christ Church Cathedral Vancouver Canada Robert Randolph Bruce Noyon Cathedral Noyon France George Macdonogh St Martin's Cathedral Ypres Belgium Charles Harington Arras Cathedral Arras France Duff Cooper
Amiens Cathedral tablets When the commission took up the memorial tablet proposal from the National Battlefield Memorials Committee, several tablets had already been unveiled in Amiens Cathedral to the memory of Dominion forces that had participated in the Somme Offensive or in later battles in the area. Amiens is the capital of the département of the Somme, and the 13th-century Amiens Cathedral is the largest in Europe. This led to many requests after the war for permission to erect memorials there. Eleven such memorials are listed in The Middlebrook Guide to the Somme Battlefields, all located near the cathedral's south door. Six of them commemorate British or Dominion troops, including the prototype commission tablet.
The first of these six memorials was erected for the Royal Canadian Dragoons and was dedicated on 12 April 1919 by the Archbishop of Amiens. This was followed by a tablet to the Australian Imperial Force, unveiled on 7 November 1920 by Marshal Ferdinand Foch in the presence of the Australian High Commissioner Andrew Fisher. The erection of a tablet to South African forces, reported in December 1920, had been suggested by the late Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa Louis Botha. A tablet to the forces of Newfoundland was unveiled on 27 August 1922 by Sir Richard Squires the Prime Minister of Newfoundland. The aforementioned prototype commission tablet was unveiled on 9 July 1923 by Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught and wartime Governor-General of Canada. The final tablet, to the soldiers of the New Zealand Division, was unveiled on 16 July 1923 by Lord Liverpool, wartime Governor (later Governor-General) of New Zealand, in the presence of the High Commissioner for New Zealand, Sir James Allen.
+ Amiens prototype tablet inscriptionsTablet in AmiensEnglishFrenchA.M.D.G.IN SACRED MEMORY OF SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN OF THE ARMIES OF GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND WHO FELL IN FRANCE & BELGIUM DURING THE GREAT WAR 1914 – 1918 IN THIS DIOCESE LIE THEIR DEAD OF THE BATTLES OF THE SOMME 1916 THE DEFENCE OF AMIENS 1918 & THE MARCH TO VICTORY 1918A LA MEMOIRE DES 600,000 SOLDATS DES ARMEES DE LA GND BRETAGNE & DE L'IRLANDE TOMBEES AU CHAMP D'HONNEUR EN FRANCE ET EN BELGIQUE 1914 – 1918 DANS CE DIOCESE REPOSENT LEURS MORTS DES BATAILLES DE LA SOMME 1916 DE LA DEFENSE D'AMIENS 1918 ET DE LA VICTOIRE 1918
The inscription uses the abbreviation A.M.D.G. for the Latin phrase Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, and in addition to the Somme battles of 1916 refers to the defence of Amiens during the German spring offensive, and the Battle of Amiens and the Hundred Days Offensive that led to the Armistice in 1918. A version of the Amiens tablet is displayed at the headquarters of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Maidenhead, UK.
The form of the wording to be used on the tablets was the subject of correspondence between commission officials and advisers. One such letter, between Kipling and Ware was written on 8 May 1923, with Kipling giving his thoughts on the wording proposed for the Notre Dame tablet (unveiled the following year) in light of the wording being used for the Amiens tablet (unveiled two months after this letter was written): Of course, "diocese", in this connection, is absurd. It will have to be "France". Otherwise I don't see much wrong with the wording, except that, it seems to me, "dead", in place of "men", is the clou. The difficulty is the supplementary clause, and the word "especially", which, I fear, can't be avoided. I prefer "honoured" or "enduring" to "sacred", but there may be good reason for keeping to the last. I think that the word "here" after "rest", gives a touch of intimacy between the two lands. Kipling went on to suggest a draft form of the inscription that was eventually used (with further changes) on the Notre Dame tablet.
Tablets in France