Around 300,000 soldiers are remembered on memorials to the missing in France & Belgium. These are men who were killed in action but have no known grave. The largest of these is the Thiepval Memorial to the missing which commemorates over 70,000 officers and men who were lost on the Somme. There are Memorials in most places around the world where there was fighting during the two world wars.
The Menin Gate At Midnight by Will Longstaff
If you are looking for a photograph of a name on one of the following memorials, let us know and we will check to see if we have a photo of the relevant panel.
Cambrai Memorial (Louverval Military Cemetery)
The Cambrai Memorial commemorates more than 7,000 servicemen of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died in the Battle of Cambrai in November and December 1917 and whose graves are not known. The Cambrai Memorial was designed by H Chalton Bradshaw with sculpture by C S Jagger. The Memorial stands on a terrace in Louverval Military Cemetery, which is situated on the north side of the N30, south of Louverval village.
Cassino Memorial, (Cassino War Cemetery) Italy
The Cassino Memorial is situated within Cassino War Cemetery, which lies in the Commune of Cassino, Province of Frosinone. The Memorial commemorates over 4,000 Commonwealth servicemen who took part in the Italian campaign during World War Two and whose graves are not known.
Dunkirk Memorial
The Dunkirk Memorial stands within the Dunkirk Town Cemetery. It commemorates more than 4,500 casualties of the British Expeditionary Force who died in the campaign of 1939-40 and who have no known grave. The memorial was designed by Philip Hepworth. The engraved glass panel depicting the evacuation was by John Hutton.
La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial
The La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial commemorates nearly 4,000 officers and men of the British Expeditionary Force who died during the retreat from Mons and in subsequent actions on the Marne & Aisne during August, September and the early part of October 1914 and who have no known grave. The La Ferté-sous-Jouarre memorial was unveiled on 4 November 1928. The Memorial stands on the south bank of the river Marne in a small park.
Le Touret Memorial (Le Touret Military Cemetery)
The Le Touret Memorial records the names of 13,479 officers and men who fell in the area and have no known grave between October 1914 and 24th September 1915. The Memorial stands in Le Touret Military Cemetery where over 1500 war graves can also be found. The Memorial takes the form of a loggia surrounding an open rectangular court. The court is enclosed by three solid walls and on the eastern side by a colonnade. The names of those commemorated are listed on panels set into the walls of the court and the gallery, arranged by Regiment, Rank and alphabetically by surname within the rank. Inscribed above the arches in this courtyard are the names of the battles and actions fought in the area and over the time which this memorial covers. They are: La Bassee, Festubert 1914, Givenchy 1914/1915, Cuinchy, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Festubert 1915. The memorial was unveiled on May the 22nd, 1930 by Lord Tyrrell, the British Ambassador to France at that time. The architect was J.R.Truelove, a former captain in the London Regiment.
Loos Memorial (Dud Corner Cemetery)
The Loos Memorial is a 15 foot high wall which forms the back and sides of Dud Corner Cemetery at Loos-en-Gohelle. The Memorial commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who fell in the area from the first day of the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915, to the Armistice on 11 November 1918 who have no known grave.
Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.
The Menin Gate was so named because here the road out of Ypres passed through the old wall defences going in the direction of Menin. During the war the two stone lions standing on each side of the Menin Gate were seen by tens of thousands of troops as they went towards the front line. The gate, beyond which these men’s fate lay, became highly symbolic. Afterwards it was decided that on this site a huge monument, designed by the architect Sir Reginald Blomfield, would commemorate those of the Empire who were killed in Belgium but have no known grave. The memorial was unveiled by Field Marshal Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927. It bears the names of 55,000 officers and men and covers the period up to the 15th August 1917. The Last Post is sounded at the Memorial, every evening at 8pm
Ploegsteert Memorial (Berks Cemetery Extension)
The Ploegsteert Memorial commemorates more than 11,000 missing officers and soldiers of the United Kingdom and South African forces who died in this sector during the First World War. The Memorial lists the missing from the battles of Armentieres, Aubers Ridge (in 1914), Loos, Fromelles (in 1915), Estaires (in 1916), Hazebrouck, Scherpenberg and Outtersteene Ridge (in 1918). The memorial is 70 feet in diameter and 38.5 feet in height. It was unveiled on 7 June 1931 by the Duke of Brabant. The memorial was the work of the architect H Charlton Bradshaw, with sculpture by Gilbert Ledward and comprises a circular temple with pillars guarded by two lions, one of which embodies stern defiance and the other serenity. Local legend has it that the stern lion faces Germany and the smiling lion faces Great Britain.
Portsmouth Naval Memorial
The Memorial is one of three designed by Sir Robert Lorimer after the Great War. The three memorials are identical and are located at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth. At the end of the Second World War each memorial was extended to accommodate those navy personnel who died during the conflict who have no known grave. The Portsmouth Memorial is located on the seafront at Southsea. The Memorial commemorates 9,667 sailors of the Great War & 14,918 of the Second World War.
Pozieres Memorial
The Memorial encloses Pozieres British Cemetery which is a little south-west of the village on the north side of the main road, D929, from Albert to Pozieres. On the road frontage is an open arcade terminated by small buildings and broken in the middle by the entrance and gates. Along the sides and the back, stone tablets are fixed in the stone rubble walls bearing the names of the dead grouped under their Regiments.The Memorial covers the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.
Tyne Cot Memorial (Tyne Cot Cemetery)
The Tyne Cot Memorial forms a boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery (the largest of all cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission). The names of some 35000 “missing” men, who died after August 1917, are inscribed on panels arranged by regiment on the rear wall of the cemetery. The Memorial was designed by Sir Herbert baker. The name Tyne Cot is thought to have been coined by Northumbrian troops attacking the area who thought the blockhouses looked like Tyneside workmen’s’ cottages.
Vis-en-Artois Memorial (Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery)
The Vis-en-Artois Memorial stands On the main road between Arras and Cambrai and some 7 miles from Arras and in the grounds of the Vis-en-Artois British Cemetery. The Memorial records the names of 9903 officers and men who were lost between the 8th August 1918 and the 11th November 1918 in the final Allied advances in Picardy and Artois but whose bodies were never found and thus have no known grave. The Memorial was designed by J.R.Truelove, a former captain in the London Regiment.
