Thiepval Monument
The Thiepval memorial is an arch of honor in the northern French municipality of Authuille . It is named after the nearby village of Thiepval .
The 45-meter-high arch resting on 16 pillars was designed by Edwin Lutyens on behalf of the British government and built in brick in 1932. The monument commemorates soldiers of the British and South African army units who died in the Battle of the Somme during World War I and were no longer buried in their own grave. Among the currently (2010) 72,090 chiseled names is the British composer George Butterworth . The military cemetery behind the memorial marks the front line on July 1, 1916, the first day of the battle. Fatalities found and identified later are buried here with military honors, and their names are then removed from the memorial. A separate burial site holds the remains of 300 French and 300 Commonwealth soldiers each .
The Thiepval Memorial is the main British memorial in France and is visited by over 160,000 people annually. An information center has been attached to it since 2004. Annually on July 1st and November 11th ( Veterans Day ) joint British-French memorial ceremonies are held.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 2 ″ N , 2 ° 41 ′ 9 ″ E