Southend-on-Sea War Memorial, or Southend War Memorial, is a First World War memorial in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in south-eastern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1921. Southend-on-Sea is a seaside resort famous for its pleasure pier, which was used by the military during the First World War. The town was a stopping point for soldiers en route to the front and, as the war drew on, it also became an important disembarkation point for the evacuation of injured troops. This saw the conversion of several buildings in Southend into hospitals. A committee appointed Lutyens, the architect of The Cenotaph, to design a permanent memorial as a replacement for temporary shrines. He originally proposed a cenotaph but this was rejected in favour of an obelisk rising from a screen wall. In front of the monument is a garden, also designed by Lutyens, and the words "lest we forget" are set in stone on a lawn. Instead of carving them on the memorial, the names of the 1,338 dead from Southend are recorded on plaques fixed to the walls of Prittlewell Priory. The memorial is one of six obelisks Lutyens designed for war memorials in Britain and closely resembles those for Northampton and for the North Eastern Railway. It was largely praised by art historians but one Lutyens biographer felt the lettering in the grass detracted from it. The memorial was unveiled on 27 November 1921 by the Lord Lieutenant of Essex and dedicated by the Bishop of Chelmsford in front of a large crowd. Invited guests included the mayor, local clergy, veterans from the district, and organisations which had contributed to the war effort in the area. The memorial became a listed building in 1974. Lutyens's memorials were declared a national collection in 2015 to commemorate the centenary of the war and Southend's was upgraded to grade II*. A statue of a soldier was added in 2019.
Background In the aftermath of the First World War, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain. Among the most prominent designers of memorials was the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, described by Historic England as "the leading English architect of his generation". Lutyens established his reputation building country houses for wealthy clients around the turn of the twentieth century and later designed much of New Delhi, but the war had a profound effect on him. Thereafter, many of his commissions involved commemorating its casualties. He became renowned for The Cenotaph in London, which became Britain's national memorial, and for his work for the Imperial War Graves Commission. Southend-on-Sea is a seaside resort on the Thames Estuary, 40 miles (60 kilometres) east of London. The town (which became a city in 2022) is famous for its pleasure pier. Immediately to the east is Shoeburyness, a garrison town and home to a military installation; to the north was an aerodrome (now Southend Airport), which became a naval air station. Shortly after the declaration of war, the British government began the internment of German citizens and several hundred were held on three ships moored off the pier. Many soldiers passed through Southend en route to the Western Front. The pier was frequently used to reach troop ships and Southchurch Park was taken over as an army training ground. As the war drew on, Southend also became an evacuation point for casualties and several hotels were converted to hospitals. The town was bombed by German Zeppelins twice in May 1915. Another bombing raid in 1917 caused more damage and 33 deaths.
Commissioning The formal end of the war, brought about by the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919, saw celebrations in Southend and elsewhere. Four days of commemorative events began with a military parade in London on 19 July and on 23 July a fleet review was held in the Thames Estuary and the assembled warships fired a 21-gun salute. Multiple unofficial temporary shrines were made to commemorate Southend's casualties. At the end of the war, the town council agreed that these would be replaced with a permanent monument. A war memorial committee was founded, chaired by the mayor, to consider designs and sites. Among the proposals were a new wing for the local hospital, homes for disabled veterans, and gardens in Prittlewell Square. The committee ultimately decided on a site at the top of the cliffs, previously the location of a flagpole. The committee commissioned Lutyens, who first suggested a variation of The Cenotaph. A sketch for the proposal is in the archives of the Royal Institute of British Architects. It is broadly similar to the Royal Berkshire Regiment's memorial in Reading in that it features an urn at the top. This was rejected in favour of an obelisk, which Lutyens designed for a fee of £5,500, and which the committee approved in 1921. Once the design was agreed, the project proceeded smoothly. To raise funds, concerts were laid on in the town and a fishing competition was held on the pier. Any surplus funds would be used to provide scholarships for children of the dead. Instead of engraving the names of the dead on the memorial, the committee decided to emboss the 1,338 names on tablets which would be fixed to the walls of Prittlewell Priory, a former religious building which became the town museum in the 1920s.
Design
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