War memorials

France: Warlencourt British Cemetery

Architect: Sir Edwin Lutyens
Owners: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Location: Pas-de-Calais, France

Warlencourt British Cemetery was constructed 1923-24 and designed by Lutyens with Major George Hartley Goldsmith as Assistant Architect. Goldsmith (1886-1967) had worked for Lutyens before the war; he designed the Memorial to the Missing at La Ferté on the Marne and later worked for the Midland Bank. The design of the cemetery is characteristic of Lutyens, containing an attractive, pared down brick and stone gateway building with triumphal arch entrance and broad loggia, and central axis with the Cross of Sacrifice at the end. The cemetery is surrounded by trees, and as Jeroen Geurst remarks, a remarkable feature of Warlencourt cemetery is its abundant greenery, ‘the small trees, whitebeams, which stand between the headstones and visually interrupt the long rows are unique. On the east and west sides there are large maples that contribute to the intimate atmosphere of this large scale cemetery. Young poplars are situated on the south side , on either side of the cross of sacrifice.’ (Geurst, 2010: 436-7).

Gavin Stamp