THE A.I.F.
MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING TO BE ERECTED AT VILLERSBRETONNEUX “GEM OF ALL MONUMENTS” (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright) LONDON, Bth October. Experts who have seen drawings of the Memorial to the 10,800 A.I.F. missing, which the War Graves Commission is erecting at VillersBretonneux, says it will be the gem of all the monuments on the French battlefields, even going so far as to say that it will be the crowning achievement of similar efforts of the designer, Sir Edward Lutyens.
It will form a cemetery fronting the Villers-Bretonneux-Corbie road with classic entrance gates flanked with twin pavilions of a design hitherto not seen in France. Immediately inside will be a war stone bearing Kipling’s inscription: “Their names will live for ever.” In the centre of an expansive lawn fringed with graves will be a traditional war memorial cross, the actual memorial in a 10 acre block of ground steadily rising to 50 feet, in the centre of which will be a Portland stone angled wall, almost exactly in the shape of the A.I.F. formation in the costly battle of Bth August, 1918. The names of all the missing will be engraved on the wall, from the centre of which will rise a unique hollow tower of grey French stone, 100 feet high. An interior stairway will give access to a height of 78 feet, twin exterior stairs leading to the observation chamber, from which will be magnificent views of Amiens, Corbie, Peronne and Villers-Bretonneux at all points of the compass. The whole memorial will dominate the landscape.
Remembering the King’s interest in unveiling the Canadian Memorial at Vimy Ridge hopes are entertained that the A.I.F. will be similarly honoured.
The cost has slightly exceeded the estimate of £30,000, of which Australia will find £ 10,000, but by a lucky circumstance the contract in French francs was signed the day before the devaluation, so both Australia and the War Graves Commission will therefore be saved the excess over the estimate.
The foundations were finished yesterday and it is hoped that the whole will be completed by the middle of 1938.
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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 9 October 1936, Page 5
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351THE A.I.F. Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 9 October 1936, Page 5
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