This sculpture has been set in a small formal garden, freshly planted with orderly rows of tulips, at one of our eighteenth century country houses. It commemorates the soldiers hospitalised in the house during WW1. The blocks are of concrete and each bears the hospital sdmission number of a soldier. Very different to the many heroic figure sculptures on the early war memorials - a suggestion rather, perhaps, of how war reduces people to bodies of statistics.
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3 commentsThis is an unusual but very poignant memorial, Ian, especially knowing what the numbers mean. I have never been able to understand the casualty numbers of, for example, the Somme or Verdun - 50,000 men gone in a day???? Yet most of the college students who I teach have only the vaguest idea of what WWI was, let alone of the fact that it essentially gave us the world that we live in, for good or bad. It is so important to remember those who suffered, even if they are now only numbers on blocks of concrete. Thank you!!
A sad and painful reduction. A reduction almost to an absurdity by the lovely tulips surrounding the sculptures.
This is a very interesting way to memorialize the losses. It seems more affective then many I've seen. The numbered blocks are a pretty stark reminder of the cost of war.
Great post!