Cross of Sacrifice, Belfast City Cemetery, Falls road, Ballymurphy, Belfast BT12 6EQ

Cross of Sacrifice, Belfast City Cemetery

A tall memorial cross constructed between 1927 and 1931 to designs by Sir Reginald Blomfield and built by Messrs Haslett Bros of Abercorn Road, Derry. The cross was commissioned by the Imperial War Graves Commission to commemorate the dead of the First World War and occupies a prominent central location within Belfast City Cemetery on the Falls Road.

The cross is constructed of grey Carlow limestone and rises from a four-stage stepped octagonal plinth. The cross itself has an octagonal plan form and is slightly tapered, with a sword engraved to the centre of its principal elevation, facing east. The blade points downwards—a deliberate design choice by Blomfield to avoid what he termed "the sentimentalities of Gothic".

The deep top step of the plinth bears an engraved inscription: "This cross of sacrifice is one in design and intention with those which have been set up in France and Belgium and other places throughout the world where our dead of the Great war are laid to rest". A second inscription appears on the step below: "Their name liveth for evermore".

Blomfield was one of the leading architects of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. The War Cross design he created for the Imperial War Graves Commission was erected in cemeteries containing over 40 war graves. According to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Belfast City Cemetery contains 296 Commonwealth burials of the First World War.

The site for the cross, known as 'C3 Island site', was selected by officials from the Imperial War Graves Commission during a visit in November 1926. The plans were formally approved by Belfast Corporation on 1 April 1927. The cemetery itself was established in 1869 on 45 acres purchased from Thomas Sinclair on the Falls Road to address severe overcrowding in Belfast's existing burial grounds during the nineteenth century. The cross contributes to the overall character of the cemetery, which contains a number of other listed memorials including the Vaults, Herdman memorial, Inglis memorial, Carson memorial, Phillips memorial, Fennel-Stelfox memorial, and Lynn memorial.