Norwich War Memorial (also known as Norwich City War Memorial or Norwich Cenotaph) is a First World War memorial in Norwich in Eastern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the last of his eight cenotaphs to be erected in England. Before Lutyens' involvement, several abandoned proposals had been made for commemorating Norwich's war dead, and by 1926 the newly elected lord mayor was determined to see the construction of a memorial before he left office. He established an appeal to raise funds for local hospitals in memory of the dead as well as a physical monument. He commissioned Lutyens, who designed an empty tomb (cenotaph) atop a low screen wall from which protrudes a Stone of Remembrance. Bronze flambeaux at either end can burn gas to emit a flame. Lutyens also designed a roll of honour, on which the names of the city's dead are listed, which was installed in Norwich Castle in 1931. A local disabled veteran unveiled the memorial on 9 October 1927. It was moved from its original location to become the centrepiece of a memorial garden between the market and the City Hall in 1938. The structure on which the garden is built was found to be unstable in 2004 and the memorial was closed off pending repairs which began in 2008. The work was completed in 2011, during which time the memorial was restored, having fallen into disrepair while it was closed off, and rotated to face the city hall rather than the marketplace. It was rededicated on Armistice Day 2011 and is today a grade II* listed building. In 2015, it became part of a "national collection" of Lutyens' war memorials.
Background The Norfolk Regiment was one of the first to enter combat after the declaration of the First World War. The 1st battalion was stationed in Belfast, from where they were dispatched to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The 1st Norfolks participated at the Battle of Mons, one of the first major engagements of the war, in late August 1914. The 2nd battalion, based in India, sailed for the Middle East to fight against the Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Norfolks had a third battalion, part of the Territorial Force, which was first deployed for home defence around eastern England, and raised three more pals battalions. Norwich, the county town, raised another three companies of Royal Engineers. Approximately 33,000 men served overseas with the Norfolks, though many more Norfolk men joined other regiments. In the aftermath of the war and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Among the most prominent designers of memorials was Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens designed The Cenotaph on Whitehall in London, which became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations; the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world; and the Stone of Remembrance, which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several of Lutyens' civic memorials, including Norwich's.
Commissioning Norwich was among the last of Lutyens' memorials to be built. Many towns and cities built memorials soon after the end of the First World War, but early attempts in Norwich proved abortive, each mired in controversy. A scheme to build an agricultural college to serve as a memorial reached the point of soliciting donations, but these had to be returned when the scheme was abandoned as being too ambitious and not appealing to all social classes. When Charles Bignold was elected Lord Mayor of Norwich in 1926, he was determined that the city would have a war memorial before he left office. He took the initiative and commissioned Lutyens and the two men selected a site to the east of the Guildhall when the architect visited the city on 13 June 1927. Adamant that the project should benefit the living as well as provide a monument to the dead, Bignold established the Joint Hospitals and War Memorial Appeal to raise funds for the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital and the Jenny Lind Children's Hospital, as well as a physical monument. The target was £35,000, of which £4,000 was to be allocated to a memorial. The memorial would not have space for the names of Norwich's 3,544 war dead, so Lutyens was also commissioned to design the Norwich Roll of Honour. A further £800–£1,000 was allocated and Lutyens produced a set of oak panels which fold out to reveal the names painted on the inside. The monument was completed swiftly once the location was agreed; the total cost was £2,700 (1927), of which 10% was Lutyens' fee. The design and the proposed location continued to be a source of controversy in the local community. Some residents felt that the memorial would not be in keeping with the city's existing architecture, but Bignold felt sure that he had the backing of the ex-service community. He noted that the Guildhall was in a central location and as one of Norwich's most famous buildings was a significant attraction for visitors, and thus that siting the memorial there would display Norwich's pride in its contribution to the war. In response to criticisms of the design, he wrote that "the form of any war memorial depends entirely on the sum of money available for its construction. Knowing this sum, we consulted Sir Edwin Lutyens as to the best means of expending it. [...] We felt that all reasonable persons would be satisfied by the expert opinion of the man who gave London its Cenotaph".
Design
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