Tower Hill Memorial

Coordinates: 51°30′35″N 0°04′40″W / 51.5097°N 0.0777°W / 51.5097; -0.0777
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Tower Hill Memorial
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Mercantile Marine Memorial
The Merchant Seamen's Memorial
For men and women of the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets who died in both World Wars and who have no known grave
Unveiled12 December 1928
5 November 1955
Location51°30′35″N 0°04′40″W / 51.5097°N 0.0777°W / 51.5097; -0.0777
Trinity Square Gardens
London, EC3
Designed bySir Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edward Maufe
Commemorated36,087
First World War
TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE HONOUR OF TWELVE THOUSAND OF THE MERCHANT NAVY AND FISHING FLEETS WHO HAVE NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA
Second World War
THE TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND OF THE MERCHANT NAVY AND FISHING FLEETS WHOSE NAMES ARE HONOURED ON THE WALLS OF THIS GARDEN GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY AND HAVE NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA
Statistics source: Cemetery details. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Listed Building – Grade I
Official nameThe Mercantile Marine First World War Memorial
Designated27 September 1973
Reference no.1260087
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameMerchant Seamen's Memorial
Designated15 April 1998
Reference no.1031597

The Tower Hill Memorial is a pair of

Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1928; the second, the Merchant Seamen's Memorial, was designed by Sir Edward Maufe and unveiled in 1955. A third memorial, commemorating merchant seamen who were killed in the 1982 Falklands War
, was added to the site in 2005.

The first memorial was commissioned in light of the heavy losses sustained by

Act of Parliament was required to allow the construction. Queen Mary unveiled the memorial on 12 December 1928 at a ceremony broadcast live on the radio, her first use of the medium. The memorial is a vaulted corridor reminiscent of a Doric
temple and similar to Lutyens' structures in cemeteries on the Western Front. The walls are clad with bronze panels which bear the names of the missing.

Merchant shipping losses in the Second World War were significantly higher than in the first (4,786 ships, 32,000 lives) and the IWGC commissioned a second memorial on the same site, intended to complement the first. Maufe designed a sunken garden, accessed by steps behind the original memorial, the walls of which were again clad with bronze panels with the names of the missing. At regular intervals between the panels are relief sculptures (by

Queen Elizabeth II
in November 1955, after which relatives of those named on it were invited to lay flowers.

The memorials to the world wars are both listed buildings—the Mercantile Marine Memorial is grade I and part of a national collection of Lutyens' war memorials, and Maufe's Merchant Seamen's Memorial is listed at grade II*. The Falklands War memorial is not listed.

First World War memorial

Background

The Port of London Authority building at 10 Trinity Square is one of several nautical buildings in the area.

In the aftermath of the

country houses and later designed much of New Delhi. Lutyens acted as an unpaid advisor to the IWGC during the war, in which capacity he made several visits to France to make initial plans for organised cemeteries. The war had a profound effect on Lutyens; following it, he devoted much of his time to memorialising its casualties. He designed The Cenotaph on Whitehall in central London (which became Britain's national memorial to the two world wars) and many other cemeteries and memorials for the IWGC, including the Thiepval Memorial (completed 1932).[1][2][3][4]

The IWGC and its founder,

Admiralty did not initially believe that the IWGC's remit extended to sailors lost at sea and planned its own commemorations, but after negotiation, it was agreed that the commission would take responsibility for commemorating maritime casualties as it did with those who died on land.[5][6] The commission's charter defined its scope as "members of the military and naval forces of the Crown"; in 1921 the commissioners resolved that this extended to the Mercantile Marine and other civilian organisations who were engaged in the war effort.[7]

unrestricted submarine warfare. By the end of the war, more than 3,300 British- and empire-registered merchant ships had been sunk, with the loss of more than 17,000 lives.[1]

History

The colonnade viewed from the east entrance to Trinity Square Gardens

The IWGC sought advice on the form of the memorial from the seafarers' unions, who consistently requested a memorial in the form of a home for aged seamen or similar, but the commission was set against functional memorials in the belief that they became associated more with their function than with commemoration. It rejected the request, overruling its own advisory committee in doing so, on the grounds that its charter did not allow it to fund the ongoing costs of an institution. It insisted that merchant seamen would be commemorated on a monument.[7]

The commission first intended to site the memorial at Temple Steps, on the bank of the

Royal Fine Arts Commission (RFAC), which objected on two grounds: first, that Lutyens' proposal would involve the demolition of an arch built when the Thames Embankment was constructed; and second, that the memorial would be better suited to a site further downstream, east of Tower Bridge, where it would be seen by ocean-going vessels which could not travel west of the bridge. Both Lutyens and Ware attempted to persuade the RFAC to reconsider but to no avail. Lutyens was furious, feeling the merchant seamen had been relegated to "some hole in the corner because they happened to be low in social status"[6] and that Sir Reginald Blomfield (a member of the RFAC and a rival of Lutyens) was acting out of spite.[6][8]

Lutyens described the RFAC's opinion as "bosh", and suggested to Ware that they should continue regardless and force a confrontation. Ware was more diplomatic, and the IWGC chose a new site in Trinity Square Gardens on Tower Hill, still west of Tower Bridge but further from the river.[1][9][10][11] This site was considered appropriate because it was within sight of the Thames, albeit not on the riverbank, and the area already had maritime connections, including the headquarters of the Port of London Authority at 10 Trinity Square, Trinity House, and the church of All Hallows-by-the-Tower (itself home to many nautically themed memorials).[1][12] Philip Longworth, in a history of the IWGC, remarked that the location meant the commission's only memorial in London "would never be seen by most Londoners, still less find a place in the national consciousness as did Lutyens' stark monument on Whitehall". (The Cenotaph was not commissioned by the IWGC.)[13]

Mercantile Marine Memorial Act 1927
Act of Parliament
17 & 18 Geo. 5. c.xxvi
Dates
Royal assent29 June 1927
Text of statute as originally enacted

Trinity Square Gardens was

Act of Parliament was required. The bill was laid before Parliament in December 1926 and received royal assent in June 1927, becoming the Mercantile Marine Memorial Act. The building work was undertaken by Holloway Brothers (London) and the memorial was unveiled by Queen Mary (deputising for her husband, King George V) on 12 December 1928, her first solo engagement of the sort. The unveiling ceremony was broadcast live on the radio in the queen's first use of the medium. Despite taking place in torrential rain, the unveiling ceremony was attended by a large crowd, who cheered the queen as she was driven away.[1][14][15]

Design

Interior of the colonnade, showing the vaulted ceiling, rusticated walls, and chequerboard-patterned floor
A shelter building at Hooge Crater Cemetery, which Lutyens also designed for the IWGC, has been compared to the Mercantile Marine Memorial.

The main structure is in

attic which supports a large stone drum. The attic is similar to Lutyens' original design for the York City War Memorial, which featured a Stone of Remembrance rather than a drum. The sculptural element is the work of William Reid Dick, who worked on several other war memorials, including the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium.[1][17][9][18][19]

The memorial's main dedication is in bronze letters to the front (south) of the attic: TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND TO THE HONOUR OF TWELVE THOUSAND OF THE MERCHANT NAVY AND FISHING FLEETS WHO HAVE NO GRAVE BUT THE SEA; above it are the dates of the First World War (1914–1918), which are also carved into the stone on north side. To either side are decorative bronze wreaths. On the inside, the floor is in black and white stone in a chequerboard pattern. On the north side, bronze spikes occupy the otherwise-open bays.[1][20][21]

The largest single loss of life commemorated on the memorial is from the sinking of the RMS Lusitania on 7 May 1915. Of the 1,200 dead, more than 350 British crew members are commemorated on the Mercantile Marine memorial.[22] In total, the First World War memorial records the names of some 12,000 casualties.[1]

In his biography of Lutyens, Michael Barker described the design as "dignified classicism";[23] another Lutyens biographer, Christopher Hussey, described it as a "classical shrine".[24] Tim Skelton, author of Lutyens and the Great War, notes the similarity of the colonnade to the shelter buildings in Lutyens' cemeteries in France and Belgium and suggests that the memorial would be "equally well at home on the Western Front as in the heart of London".[25] The resemblance to the cemetery buildings is also noted by the Dutch architect Jeroen Geurst, who compares it in particular to those at Hooge Crater in Belgium and Serre Road in France.[26] In the opinion of the historian David Crane, the memorial never recovered from its "miserable start" and is consequently the least well-known of the IWGC's major works following the First World War.[6]

  • Plaques bearing the names of the dead from the RMS Lusitania, the largest single loss of life to be commemorated on the Mercantile Marine Memorial

Second World War memorial

The north side of the colonnade and the entrance to the sunken garden. The bronze "pool and compass" is in the foreground.
The walls at the north end of the sunken garden; the bronze panels contain the names of the dead. Three of Charles Wheeler's sculptures of the Seven Seas are visible.

Background

From the outbreak of the

Second World War, shipping losses were again high and a similar convoy system was used in an effort to protect merchant vessels. By the war's end, 4,786 ships had been sunk, with the loss of some 32,000 lives (of which almost 24,000 are commemorated at Tower Hill); almost a quarter of the losses were in British waters.[2] Although military casualties were lower in the Second World War than in the First, civilian casualties were higher and there was widespread destruction of British cities. By the end of the second war there was little appetite for another wave of large memorials. Instead, many memorials from the first war were adapted or expanded to commemorate the new casualties—an approach the IWGC took at Tower Hill and elsewhere. Generally, it only built new memorials to the missing in places which had not been touched by the First World War. The IWGC was by this time a much more established and well-respected institution and thus found it easier to obtain the agreements and public support necessary for its work.[27]

The architect was Edward Maufe, who began his career designing churches and by the 1950s was the IWGC's principal architect for the United Kingdom for the Second World War commemorations. Maufe was also responsible for the Air Forces Memorial in Surrey and extensions to the Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Chatham naval memorials.[17][28][29][30]

History

Merchant Navy Memorial Act 1952
Act of Parliament
15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2. c. xv
Dates
Royal assent9 July 1952
Text of statute as originally enacted

Following the Second World War, the IWGC considered various sites for a memorial to the new casualties but, after consultation with the relevant public bodies, decided Tower Hill was the most appropriate location. The commission briefed Maufe that the new memorial should complement Lutyens' design and fit in with the existing architecture in the area, including the Port of London Authority building. Maufe first proposed extending Lutyens' structure with a further colonnade, but this was rejected. His next design, for a sunken garden, was accepted. Another Act of Parliament was required, which was passed in July 1952 as the Merchant Navy Memorial Act. Work began later in 1952 and was completed in 1955. Some modifications to Maufe's design were necessary. Maufe initially planned a larger grassy area between Lutyens' colonnade and the sunken garden with a Stone of Remembrance at the centre. The stone was eliminated and the grass scaled back to reduce the overall size of the memorial and assuage the concerns of local people. The depth of the garden had to be reduced at the south end because of a London Underground tunnel.[31][32]

The memorial commemorates merchant seamen from ships registered in Britain or its Empire or on loan to the governments of those countries, and who were lost at sea as a result of enemy action in the Second World War; it lists 23,765 men, of whom 832 were fishermen and 80 maritime pilots and lighthousemen. The much larger casualty figures and corresponding scale of the memorial reflect the vital contribution of the

Queen Elizabeth II at a modest ceremony on 5 November 1955, two days before Remembrance Sunday. The ceremony, described by The Sunday Times as "all as modest and anonymous as the Merchant Navy itself", concluded with the sounding of the "Last Post" by buglers from the Royal Marines, answered by a single ship's horn on the River Thames.[31][32][33][34] After the unveiling, 16,000 relatives of those commemorated on the memorial laid flowers around it, a process which lasted until late in the evening.[34]

Design

The Second World War memorial takes the form of a semi-circular sunken garden located behind the First World War Memorial, to its north in Trinity Square Gardens. The idea of a sunken garden appears to have originated from discussions immediately following the end of the war. There was a feeling among the new generation of artists and architects that the elaborate and artistic memorials to the First World War did not capture the national mood of mourning for the new wave of casualties and that spaces such as gardens, which provided a location for individual mourning and reflection, were more suitable. According to the architectural historian Philip Ward-Jackson, Maufe's memorial gives the impression of being a wing of an imaginary ruined church, complete with provided seats—an image which would have had "powerful resonance in the bombed City" (much of the surrounding area, including the Port of London Authority building, was severely damaged by German bombing).[35][36] The architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner described Maufe's extension as "less assertive" than the original memorial; he praised the idea of a memorial to the missing in the form of a void (the sunken garden), but felt it was let down by Wheeler's "strangely jaunty" reliefs between the lists of names.[37]

  • Sculptures at the entrance to the sunken garden
  • The eastern sentry, a Merchant Navy seaman
    The eastern sentry, a Merchant Navy seaman
  • The two sentries flanking the stone bearing the main dedication
    The two sentries flanking the stone bearing the main dedication
  • The western sentry, a Merchant Navy officer
    The western sentry, a Merchant Navy officer

The ground-level entrance area to the Second World War memorial is on the southern side of the sunken garden and consists of two

magnetic north, in the centre. The Red Ensign (the flag flown by British-registered civilian vessels) flies over the site.[20][31][38][39][21]

Later history

The Falklands War memorial was installed next to the world war memorials in 2005.

The Tower Hill memorial commemorates 36,087 seafarers from both world wars.

Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation and distributed to a range of organisations in the UK and abroad.[44] The first two volumes of this roll of honour contain the names listed on the Merchant Seamen's Memorial at Tower Hill.[45] The registers for the Tower Hill memorials are held at the nearby Trinity House on the north side of Trinity Square Gardens.[46]

Since 2000, 3 September has been celebrated annually as Merchant Navy Day; a memorial service is held close to that date at the Tower Hill Memorial.

First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (the IWGC having changed its name in 1960).[2][48]

Liverpool marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, by having twenty-five warships sail through the port to mark the milestone. [49] Ceremonies were also held at the Tower Hill Memorial on 11 May 2013, along with other events elsewhere in London and Britain.[50][a]

Lutyens' First World War Memorial became a grade II* listed building in 1973. Listed status offers legal protection from demolition or modification; grade II* is reserved for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest" and is applied to about 5.5% of listings. It was upgraded to grade I status (which is applied to around 2.5% of listed buildings, those of "the greatest historic interest") in November 2015 when Lutyens' war memorials were declared a national collection.[1][52][53] Maufe's Merchant Seamen's Memorial has separately been a grade II* listed building since 1998.[31] The CWGC began a major restoration project of the colonnade in 2019.[54]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ According to The Times, a further service was planned for 17 October 2017, organised by several maritime organisations and due to be attended by 400 people, including foreign diplomats and Anne, Princess Royal, to mark 100 years since the introduction of the convoy system. The service was cancelled at short notice as the organisers were unable to obtain permission for a road closure which was required for the event.[51]

References

Bibliography

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Historic England. "The Mercantile Marine First World War Memorial (1260087)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "Tower Hill Memorial: History". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  3. required.)
  4. ^ Lutyens, p. 153.
  5. ^ Summers (2010), p. 39, 45.
  6. ^ a b c d Crane, p. 198.
  7. ^ a b Longworth, p. 97.
  8. ^ Ridley, pp. 348–349.
  9. ^ a b Ward-Jackson, p. 410.
  10. ^ a b Skelton, p. 94.
  11. ^ Amery, p. 154.
  12. ^ Pevsner, p. 610.
  13. ^ Longworth, pp. 98–99.
  14. ^ Ward-Jackson, p. 411.
  15. ^ Skelton, p. 95.
  16. ^ Ward, p. 167
  17. ^ a b "Tower Hill Memorial: Design". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  18. ^ Saunders, p. 78.
  19. required.)
  20. ^ a b Boorman (2005), p. 182
  21. ^
    Imperial War Museums
    . Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  22. ^ "The Tower Hill Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 25 October 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  23. ^ Barker, p. 41.
  24. ^ Hussey, p. 474.
  25. ^ Skelton, p. 172.
  26. ^ Geurst, pp. 56, 92.
  27. ^ Longworth, pp. 194–195.
  28. ^ Corke, pp. 45–46.
  29. required.)
  30. ^ Borg, pp. 82–83.
  31. ^ a b c d Historic England. "Merchant Seamen's Memorial (1031597)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
  32. ^ a b Ward-Jackson, p. 412.
  33. ^ Summers (2010), p. 45.
  34. ^ a b Quinlan, p. 219.
  35. ^ Ward-Jackson, p. 414.
  36. ^ Boorman (1995), p. 72.
  37. ^ Pevsner, p. 611.
  38. ^ Matthews, p. 92.
  39. required.)
  40. ^ "Tower Hill Memorial". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  41. ^ Summers (2007), p. 24.
  42. ^ Longworth, p. 195
  43. ^ Register of the Mercantile Marine memorial, Tower Hill, London, compiled ... by order of the Imperial War Graves Commission. Imperial War Graves Commission. 1928. Retrieved 26 May 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
  44. ^ "M.N. Roll of Honour". The Nautical Magazine. 179: 235. 1958.
  45. ^ "One Hundred and First Annual Report". Annual Report of the Mercantile Marine Service Association. 101: 2. 1958.
  46. ^ "Tower Hill Memorial: Visit". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  47. ^ Quinlan, p. 218.
  48. Imperial War Museums
    . Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  49. ^ "Battle of the Atlantic: Liverpool marks 70th anniversary". BBC News. 25 May 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  50. ^ "UK remembers Battle of the Atlantic 70 years on". BBC News. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  51. ^ Brown, David (6 October 2017). "Merchant navy service is sunk by London council's refusal to waive red tape". The Times. Retrieved 19 July 2018.(subscription required)
  52. ^ "The Listing and Grading of War Memorials". Historic England. July 2015. p. 2. Archived from the original on 21 October 2016. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  53. ^ "National Collection of Lutyens' War Memorials Listed". Historic England. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2018.
  54. ^ "London's Hidden Gem War Memorial to be Restored". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 27 March 2022.

External links