Cross of Sacrifice, Milltown Cemetery, 546 Falls Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim

Cross of Sacrifice, Milltown Cemetery, Falls Road, Belfast

This is a freestanding war memorial cross erected in November 1929, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield to the standardised design commissioned by the Imperial War Graves Commission. It commemorates the military casualties of the First World War whose graves are scattered throughout Milltown Cemetery. The memorial stands on a prominent corner site within the cemetery, at the junction between the principal roadway and a pedestrian walkway, occupying the south-eastern corner of an unrelated mass grave plot. It is elevated on a stepped platform and faces south-east.

The memorial is constructed of carved grey limestone throughout. The cross itself has a slightly tapered form with an octagonal plan, rising from a matching stepped base. It is mounted on a three-stage octagonal plinth of grey ashlar limestone, the lower stage of which has two courses of rock-faced limestone at its base, topped with ashlar limestone slabs. To the centre of the principal south-eastern face, at the crossing point between the arm and the shaft, a bronze downward-pointing sword is mounted. The proportions of the cross are based on those of the Celtic cross rather than the Christian form, deliberately evoking the proportions of the human body. The sword, styled in the manner of Excalibur, faces downwards and, together with the cross, was intended to represent the faith and self-sacrifice of those who died in the Great War, combining religious and chivalric themes. Blomfield consciously sought to keep the design free of any association with particular historical styles, wishing to avoid what he described as the sentimentalities of Gothic, believing that runic monuments or Gothic crosses had nothing to do with the grim realities of the trenches. The result is an abstract, functional and unornamented design.

The upper stage of the plinth bears an engraved inscription across its principal three faces reading: "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 on five faces of the offset base reads: "Eternal rest grant to them O'Lord."

To the north-west of the cross stands a freestanding ashlar limestone screen wall, a feature sometimes incorporated alongside Crosses of Sacrifice. The screen wall has a central elevation facing south-east, flanked by angled sections that step down to the outer sides. It is surmounted by a deep coping steeply chamfered to the south-east. The principal elevation of the screen wall contains seven mounted panels inscribed with the names of those commemorated by the memorial. The central panel bears the inscription: "In memory of those who gave their lives in the Great War and who lie buried in this cemetery." Six of the panels are inscribed with the names of 45 First World War military casualties who are buried in 39 public graves in the poor ground of the cemetery, where their graves cannot be individually marked by headstones.

The entire ensemble is elevated on a symmetrical six-sided platform comprising ashlar stone flags over coursed rock-faced limestone walls, which are partially exposed to the southern and eastern sides. The platform has rounded corners to the south-east, flanking three inset steps.

The memorial is associated with a row of sixteen headstones near the eastern boundary of the cemetery, marking graves of Second World War military personnel. The headstones are placed unusually at the foot rather than the head of the graves, and face west. Those of local and Commonwealth casualties carry the traditional commissioned headstones; those of seven Polish nationals are pointed-headed and feature the Polish eagle carved in relief. The Blitz Memorial, a separate structure in granite and concrete, is sited to the eastern end of the graveyard, set back from the road and facing east. The Airmen's graves are located at the north-eastern end of the cemetery, orientated on a north-south axis, with headstones set back from the road.

Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856–1942) was a prolific London-based architect with considerable experience in the design of war memorials and commemorative structures, including the Belgian War Memorial on the Victoria Embankment (1917), the Menin Gate Memorial and St George's Memorial Church in Ypres (1922 and 1928), and the Royal Air Force Memorial in London (1923). His standard design for the Cross of Sacrifice was approved by the Imperial War Graves Commission, which had been established in 1917 and sought to produce a memorial that would honour all casualties of war equally, in accordance with the framework laid out by Sir Frederick Kenyon in 1918. The Commission originally intended Blomfield's design to serve as a basis from which other architects would develop their own variants for individual cemeteries, but such was the design's popularity that Blomfield's standard version became the only type implemented, and it has since become the archetypal symbol of First World War commemoration in Britain and across the Commonwealth. The design was originally produced in four heights — 14, 18, 20, and 24 feet — though sizes of over 30 feet are now permitted, with the largest being a 40-foot cross erected in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Nearly identical memorials to this one are erected at both Belfast City Cemetery and Dundonald Cemetery.

Milltown Cemetery was established by the Roman Catholic Church to provide adequate burial ground for the growing Catholic population of Belfast. It was opened in 1869 following a dispute raised by Bishop Dorrian regarding the inadequate provision of Catholic burial ground at the intended municipal cemetery on the Falls Road; Dorrian purchased 15 acres on the Falls Road for a new Catholic cemetery, which opened that year. There are a total of 105 First World War casualties buried in Milltown, including three French sailors, and 53 from the Second World War, including seven Polish airmen. Thirty-five headstones carry inscriptions for 37 First World War military personnel, while 19 of the Second World War casualties are inscribed on family headstones within the cemetery. In August 1940 a new lot for military casualties was set aside on the west side of the cemetery. During the Second World War, Milltown was the only burial ground in the north of Ireland in which military casualties from that war were initially unmarked. A dispute arose between the cemetery and the War Graves Commission over the erection of temporary wooden grave markers, but was later resolved by the installation of semi-permanent painted steel crosses over the graves.

The memorial is prominently located on a main axis route through the historic Milltown Cemetery and contributes positively to the visual fabric and to the rich social and cultural heritage of the cemetery. Other listed structures within the cemetery include the gate screen, the Clark Canavan Cross, and the Bowen Vault.