The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme

This study by an architectural historian tells the story of the building of the Somme Memorial in the context of the history of commemorating war dead and the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission; it considers the intellectually complex and breathtaking form of this truly original development of the Roman triumphal arch in relation both to Lutyens's own work and the history of memorial architecture, as well as exploring its wider historical significance and its resonances today. More and more it is clear that so much of the meaning of the twentieth century, its ruthlessness and brutality, is concentrated here. At Thiepval terrible events eventually gave rise to a very great work of architecture whose language, at once modern and traditional, retains the power to move and astonish.