Southampton Cenotaph

MATERIALS: brick, Portland stone, glass.

DESCRIPTION: the memorial stands in Watts (West) Park, alongside Above Bar Street. It is raised on a platform of five stone steps, with the Stone of Remembrance to the west of the cenotaph raised on a further two steps.

The cenotaph is in the form of a five-tier tapering stone pylon rising to a platform topped with a stone sarcophagus, on which is draped the recumbent effigy of a dead soldier. Flanking it to the west is a Stone of Remembrance and to the north and south, flush with the eastern face, two shorter single-tier pillars surmounted by fir cones (symbols of eternity); the latter being joined to the pylon by a seat and a wall.

The pedestal of the cenotaph has recessed panels on the north and south sides, where the 1,793 names of the fallen are inscribed. The supplemental roll of honour added in 1921 (203 names) and 1922 (one name) is inscribed at the shoulder of the pylon, below the recessed panels that contain the original list. In addition to the names of the fallen, the phrase OUR GLORIOUS DEAD is inscribed on the lower tier of the eastern (front) face of the central pylon and THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE into the west face of the Stone of Remembrance.

The central pylon contains a wealth of sculptural depictions; the eastern (front) face of the central pylon bears a cross of sacrifice; the eastern and western faces of the third tier bear the coat of arms of the city of Southampton; lions are mounted on the north and south shoulders of the fourth tier; and on the fifth tier, just below the sarcophagus, are sculpted wreaths enclosing the emblems of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force and Mercantile Marine

Either side of the memorial, four individual panels of etched green glass (each 1.2m tall and 2.85m wide) are mounted in Portland Stone supports, bearing the names of the fallen.

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 6 December 2016.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 13 May 2022 to reword a sentence in description