New Zealand Memorial (Grévillers British Cemetery)
The New Zealand memorial at Grévillers British Cemetery is a dignified rear screen wall of stone niches terminated by two brick‑and‑stone, pyramidal‑roofed pavilions (store and shelter), designed by Lutyens to integrate with the cemetery and its Jekyll‑influenced planting as one of several dispersed New Zealand memorials to the missing.
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Description
Unlike the other Dominions, the New Zealand Government decided not to have a single memorial to commemorate their soldiers who died in action but whose bodies were either never found or, if found, were not able to be identified. Instead they chose to have a serials of smaller memorials incorporated into cemeteries throughout the battle areas. It was logical therefore that they would be designed by the architects who had designed the adjacent cemetery and Lutyens was responsible for two – a stone pavilion at the Marfaux British Cemetery and a grander affair, of brick and stone, at Grévillers British Cemetery on the Somme.
The memorial takes the form of a screen wall at the rear of the cemetery with stone niches terminated by two brick and stone pavilions with pyramidal roofs – one of which acts as a tool store for the cemetery workmen and the other being a shelter in which visitors can shelter from inclement weather. It is a simple, dignified design appropriate to its setting and complimented, of course, by the lush planting inspired by Gertrude Jekyll and others. (Contributor: Tim Skelton)
Bibliography
, Geurst, J. (2010) Cemeteries of the Great War by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
