Royal Fusiliers War Memorial

War memorial. Erected 1922, after the First World War, to the design of the architects Cheadle and Harding and sculptor Albert Toft. Bronze cast by A B Burton at the Thames Ditton Foundry, London. Further inscriptions added after the Second World War.

MATERIALS: Portland stone pedestal, bronze plaques and a bronze figure.

DESCRIPTION: the war memorial stands on a traffic island on High Holborn near the corner with Brooke Street. It is broadly adjacent to The Staple Inn and Prudential Assurance Building. The memorial comprises a 2.6m high bronze statue surmounting a 5m high tapered Portland Stone pedestal and chamfered base. The statue is a private infantry soldier of the Royal Fusiliers in full service dress; boots, puttee, uniform, knapsack, ammunition pouches, backpack and helmet, carrying a rifle with a fixed bayonet behind him in his right hand. He stands with his head turned and his right leg raised on a rock, as having climbed to a vantage point to scan the horizon. His left hand is clenched in a fist in front of him and he faces directly along the road to the west to guard the entrance to the City of London. On the front (west) side of the pedestal is the regimental badge: a Tudor rose enclosed by the Garter bearing the motto: HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE ('shame on him with evil thoughts'), surmounted by a King’s crown. Beneath the badge is the inscription: THE ROYAL FUSILIERS/ (CITY OF LONDON REGIMENT)/ TO THE GLORIOUS MEMORY/ OF THE/ 22,000 ROYAL FUSILIERS/ WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR/ 1914-1919/ AND TO THE ROYAL FUSILIERS/ WHO FELL IN THE WORLD WAR/ 1939-1945/. On the chamfered top of the base is a stone block, inserted at a later date, inscribed in small lettering: AND THOSE FUSILIERS/ KILLED IN SUBSEQUENT CAMPAIGNS. The rear (east) side of the pedestal has a bronze plaque bearing a list of the 53 regular, service, and territorial battalions of the regiment that served in the First World War. The base of the statue is inscribed: ALBERT TOFT Sc. On the base are stainless steel hooks for wreaths.