War memorials

France: Le Touret Military Cemetery & Memorial to The Missing

Architect: John Reginald Truelove
Owners: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Location: Pas de Calais, France

Following the crisis of 1926 because of French unhappiness over the number and scale of the memorials it was proposed to erect in France, it was decided that some of the Missing should be commemorated on memorials to be placed in cemeteries already completed. After sites had been allotted to the Principal Architects, the design of other memorials was to be chosen by competition open to the Assistant Architects. The competitions for the proposed memorials to the missing in the cemeteries at both Le Touret and Vis-en-Artois were held in 1928 and both won by John Reginald Truelove (1886-1942). Truelove left the IWGC in 1924 and practised in Nottingham in 1929. He later designed the Municipal Buildings at Stoke Newington (1935-37).

The Le Touret memorial was unveiled in 1930. The open arcades are terminated by cornice-less pylons reminiscent of the work of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue at the Nebraska State Capitol. It commemorates 13,479 Missing who died in the battles around here in 1914-15, and there are 915 burials in the cemetery.

Gavin Stamp