Royal Flying Corps Memorial
Lutyens’s largely overlooked Air Services Memorial at the Faubourg‑d’Amiens cemetery (unveiled 1932) is a stone column topped by William Reid Dick’s three‑ton globe encircled with winged stars, commemorating 990 missing airmen of the RNAS, RFC, AFC and RAF whose positions reflect the Western Front on 11 November 1918.
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Description
This largely unknown memorial by Lutyens commemorates 990 men of the various flying services (Royal Naval Air Service, Royal Flying Corps, Australian Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force) who died during the war but have no known grave. It stands within the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery at Faubourg-d’Amiens, in northern France.
The globe atop the stone pillar weighs nearly three tons and was sculpted by Sir William Reid Dick, who worked with the architect upon a number of other commissions such as the Midland Bank in Poultry, London. The idea of winged stars circling the globe was proposed by the architect and the positioning of the globe reflects the situation in northern France on 11 November 1918.
The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 31 July 1932, the day before the inauguration of the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval. (Contributor: Tim Skelton)
Bibliography
, Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Arras Flying Services Memorial. [Online] Available from: https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/99996/arras-flying-services-memorial/
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