Monument Design

Undoubtedly the most profound memorial to the fallen, the Cenotaph was designed by Edwin Lutyens in temporary form in July 1919 to evoke a national tomb as the focus of a commemorative parade of veterans. Its wood and plaster incarnation was so popular that the government resolved to pay for a permanent memorial in which Lutyens deployed the subtle refinements of entasis, as used on the Parthenon, to enhance its inherently symbolic values of eternity.

His original sketches—one ‘sketched at dinner’—show how the design sprang to life, while already hinting at its final form from its creator’s inexhaustible reserves of creativity. Lutyen's sketch of the Cenotaph—imagined during a Remembrance ceremony—on his office’s letter- headed paper.

Image courtesy of Imperial War Museums.

Drawing inspiration from classical and Renaissance tombs, the Cenotaph takes the form of a slender pylon supporting a sarcophagus. Despite its simple appearance, the design is careful and subtle, using convex curvatures, based on the classical Greek technique of entasis, to produce the illusion of straight lines. The only alteration to Lutyens’ design was the Cabinet’s insistence on real flags rather than stone banners. Aside from the years MCMXIV (1914) and MCMXIX (1919), the sole inscription was “The Glorious Dead”. The genius of its design meant that the Cenotaph was at once inclusive and suggestive, an abstract conception which was profoundly expressive of personal and popular emotions.