Somme
Art, History & Archaeology Sites & Museums

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme has been described as “the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century”. Construction began in 1928. Four years and 10 million bricks later it was completed at the cost of £117,000, which is the equivalent today of around £10 million. The result is not just a memorial to all those that fought and died on the Somme, but one that acknowledges the British and French alliance during the battle, and perhaps most importantly, it commemorates over 72,000 British and South African soldiers that have no known grave.

The town of Villers-Bretonneux was captured by the Germans on 23 April 1918. A number of Australian Divisions recaptured the town follows several days of conflict. The cemetery just outside the town has 2,000 graves, 779 of these are named Australian soldiers. Adjacent to the cemetery is the Australian National Memorial, which remembers all the Australian servicemen who died during the First World War in both France and Belgium – particularly those without an identified grave. Officially, and as of 2023, there 10,729 named Australian servicemen on the memorial. Both the Memorial tower and the military cemetery were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.