North Eastern Railway War Memorial
The North Eastern Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial in York in northern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to commemorate employees of the NER who left to fight in the war and were killed while serving. By the end of the War, 2,236 men from the company had died on military service overseas; others were killed at home by bombardments of east coast ports.
About North Eastern Railway War Memorial in brief
The North Eastern Railway War Memorial is a First World War memorial in York in northern England. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens to commemorate employees of the NER who left to fight in the war and were killed while serving. It consists of a 54-foot high obelisk which rises from the rear portion of a three-sided screen wall. The wall forms a recess in which stands the Stone of Remembrance. The memorial is a grade II* listed building, and is part of a “national collection” of Lutyen’s war memorials. It is one of several buildings and structures in the centre of York related to the company, including the company’s headquarters and the city’s original railway station. The project became embroiled in a controversy surrounding its size and location, which grew to envelop the proposed York City War Memorial. The controversy was resolved after Lutyes modified his plans for the N ER memorial to move it away from the walls and theCity opted for a revised scheme on land just outside the walls; coincidentally the land was owned by the NE Railway, whose board donated it to the city. The NER memorial was unveiled on 14 June 1924 by Field Marshal Lord Plumer. After the war, thousands of memorials were built across Britain.
The Cenotaph in London became the focus for the national Remembrance Sunday commemorations, as well as the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing—the largest British war memorial anywhere in the world—and the Stone Of Remembrance which appears in all large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and in several other memorials in Britain. In the UK, the memorials are located in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle, Cardiff and Glasgow. The site was originally a coal depot and carriage sidings, and was chosen as it was immediately adjacent to the NNE’s head office. The company released over 18,000 of its employees to serve in the armed forces during the First World war, many of them joining the 17th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers. By the end of the War, 2,236 men from the company had died on military service overseas; others were killed at home by bombardments of east coast ports, such as the raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby, and in the three Zeppelin raids on York. The board initially planned to seek donations for the project from it workforce, but changed its mind after the general manager reported that the idea met with widespread disapproval among employees.
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