Civil Service Rifles War Memorial



The Civil Service Rifles War Memorial is a war memorial in London that commemorates the service of soldiers in the Prince of Wales's Own Civil Service Rifles in the First World War. It was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1923, and was unveiled in the quadrangle at Somerset House in London in 1924. It was relocated to the terrace beside the River Thames in 2002.

Background
In 1914, the 15th (County of London) Battalion of the London Regiment (the Prince of Wales's Own Civil Service Rifles) was a unit in the Territorial Army, then part of the 4th London Brigade, in the 2nd London Division. The soldiers were at their annual camp on Salisbury Plain when war broke out in August 1914.

The battalion was mobilised on 4 August 1914, and trained in England, before being sent to the Western Front in 1915. The battalion served in the 47th (London) Division, at the Battle of Loos in 1915, the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, and in the Hundred Days Offensive in 1918. A 2nd battalion was raised and served in France, then Salonika and Palestine. Both battalions were disbanded after the war, having lost 1,240 officers and men killed.

A war memorial for the Civil Service Rifles was suggested in 1919 by Colonel Parish DSO MC, who had served as the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion. It took several years to secure funding, with public donations, some from the regiment's funds, and the proceeds of sales of a regimental history. Permission to erect a memorial in the quadrangle at Somerset House was eventlally given by the Office of Works in July 1923. At that time, Somerset House was still used as civil service offices, and the quadrangle was one of the locations where the battalion was trained and paraded.

Design
The memorial comprises a rectangular stone column made from Portland stone, topped by classical stone urn, and standing on a pedestal on three shallow steps. The east and west sides are decorated with painted and varnished metal flags, one of the regimental colours and a Union Flag (Lutyens had originally proposed similar simulated flags in his first designs for the Cenotaph in Whitehall). The battalion's list of the main military engagements are listed on the base of the memorial.

History
The memorial was made at a masonry works in Nine Elms, with donations, the regiment's funds, and also from the sales of a regimental history. It was unveiled by the Prince of Wales on 27 January 1924, the regiment's Honorary Colonel, and dedicated by the Rev E H Beattie, chaplain to the 1st Battalion in France and Flanders. The Suffragan Bishop of Willesden William Perrin also attended. A rectangular stone pit to hold flowers and pots added at the base of the memorial in 1928. Annual services of commemoration took place up to the end of the 1980s. The memorial received a Grade 2 listing in 1987.

By the 1980s, Somerset House ceased to be used as offices for the civil service, and the memorial was removed from its position in the quadrangle in around 2000, and relocated to a position in front of the Navy Treasurer's door on the Embankment side of Somerset House, on a terrace beside the River Thames. It was rededicated on 25 July 2002 by Richard Chartres, Bishop of London