Memorials Of The Great War

War Memorial Of The Month - July 2017  

King's Somborne, Hampshire

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 To protect and promote the spirit and substance of the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens OM

As at nearby Stockbridge (see July 2016), the war memorial in nearby King’s Somborne arose because of the relationship between the architect and Herbert Johnson.  The memorials are very similar – the only difference being the base upon which the memorial stands (King’s Somborne’s is square, Stockbridge’s is round).

Johnson chaired a meeting to discuss the memorial in February 1919 at which various wide-ranging suggestions were made, encompassing a wayside cross and, ambitiously, a Parish Hall. Promises of £100 were made, including one from Johnson himself.  In due course a Lutyens “war cross” was chosen which was unveiled on Easter Sunday, 27 March 1921.  Writing about the event Johnson said the committee considered the cross to be “chaste and simple in character, dignified in appearance, while its proportions were beautiful and perfect, and of great artistic merit”.

Location: On a triangular green near the Church of St Peter and St Paul, SO20 6PN

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