Qualla: Royal Artillery Memorial

Royal Artillery Memorial: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cnbrb at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most war memorials show soldiers as they would have wanted to be remembered: upright, healthy, immaculate. Charles Sargeant Jagger looked at the First World War and decided to do the opposite. On the north side of his memorial at Hyde Park Corner, he placed a fourth figure - a dead soldier, life-size, his greatcoat thrown over the body, his helmet resting on his chest. The committee that commissioned him was nervous about the idea. Some members worried it would shock the public, 'especially women.' Jagger offered to pay for the bronze casting himself. He got his way. When the Royal Artillery Memorial was unveiled by Prince Arthur on 18 October 1925, a corpse was lying at eye level on a major London war memorial - and that, more than anything else, is why we still talk about it.

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Image: Cnbrb at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Royal Artillery Memorial: 49,076 Names

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0. Trench warfare changed what artillery did and what it cost. Over half the casualties of the First World War were caused by guns like the BL 9.2-inch howitzer that Jagger placed, one-third over-life-size and carved in Portland stone, on top of his memorial. The Royal Artillery alo...

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Image: Nick-D | CC BY-SA 4.0

Royal Artillery Memorial: The Architects Who Said No

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Cnbrb at English Wikipedia, CC BY 2.5. Three of the great Edwardian architects were approached first. Sir Edwin Lutyens sent in three designs, each under 15,000 pounds. The committee felt they looked too much like his Cenotaph and did not give artillery enough prominence. When the Office of Works said his designs woul...

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Image: Cnbrb at English Wikipedia | CC BY 2.5

Royal Artillery Memorial: Models with Names

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Jagger took advice from the committee on technical matters - the howitzer's appearance, the gunners' uniforms - but he was fierce about the design itself. He engaged the architect Lionel Pearson to build the stone structure, a squat Roman cross of Portland stone supporting the ov...

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Image: David Dixon | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Artillery Memorial: The Argument

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen, CC BY-SA 4.0. When the memorial was unveiled, the argument that followed was as loud as the howitzer was big. The Times compared it unfavourably to the Cenotaph. The Daily Mail argued the money could have gone toward injured veterans instead. Modernists, including the critic Roger Fry, dismiss...

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Image: Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen | CC BY-SA 4.0

Royal Artillery Memorial: The Greatest Sculpture

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pilgab, CC BY-SA 3.0. Jagger paid for the memorial in another way too. After delivering it - already running four months late, his best assistant having resigned earlier in 1925 - he suspended work on all his other commissions for six months to recover. He was awarded the Royal British Society of Scul...

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Image: Pilgab | CC BY-SA 3.0