Samuel Walls (University of Exeter, UK)

A large proportion of First World War memorials have continued to remain foci for remembrance activities. These have evolved, changed and fluctuated through the twentieth century and have included not only public and official war remembrance ceremonies and wreath-laying each November, but also more private commemorative activities such as placing of flowers, photographs and wreaths in memory of lost loved-ones by individual families. They have also become foci for the commemoration of individuals unrelated to war, including public figures (Lady Diana) and lost children (Madeleine McCann).

War memorials inhabit complex memorial landscapes. They were often added to pre-existing Victorian and Edwardian public spaces and may share proximity with a variety of successive commemorative material cultures. When found in parks, market squares or village greens, they can be situated within memorial gardens and in close association with memorial statues, benches bearing commemorative plaques and memorials to other wars, public figures and events.

Based on a detailed spatial analysis of a large sample of Devon’s war memorials as an element of my ongoing doctoral research, this study presents a new exploration of the commemorative spatial context of war memorials in the twentieth century. In particular, they seem to be chosen as suitable locations for the commemoration of people involved in their erection, or of non-combat related deaths of military personnel. When located in churchyards and cemeteries war memorials have often become the focus for cremation memorials and for the burials of children and young individuals. This attraction of war memorials as a focus for other commemorative monuments is countered by war memorials often acting in the opposite way, repulsing further commemorative forms. Whether found in churchyards or secular public spaces, the majority of war memorials still retain a large corona of space which is not invaded or used for other commemorative memorials.

This tension between the attraction and repulsion of war memorials offers insight into the continuing importance, significance and meanings of the location and context of war memorials to the communities within which they are situated. The paper suggests that commemorations of absence or tragic loss are permitted proximity to war memorials since these can be enshrined within the memorial covering of ‘sacrifice’ offered by the symbolism of war memorials. Other forms of commemoration that might challenge or distract from such messages are held at spatial distance in order to avoid tensions or conflicts over media or message.