Guards Memorial
The Guards Memorial is a cenotaph facing Wellington Barracks in London, commemorating Foot Guards killed during the First World War. It stands among the military memorials of St James’s Park.
Five life-size bronze figures represent the Grenadiers, Coldstream, Scots, Welsh, and Irish regiments. Each figure was modelled on a real guardsman.
Gilbert Ledward made the sculptures from guns captured during the First World War, giving the bronze a direct connection to conflict. H. Chalton Bradshaw designed the memorial in London.
The Duke of Connaught unveiled it in 1926, and a later inscription remembers those who died between 1939 and 1945. World War damage left a small hole in one sculpture.
Repairs deliberately preserved that mark, linking the memorial’s physical history with the losses it records. The figures face outwards as a group beside the barracks.
An anecdote about the Irish Guardsman says his legs belong to another soldier, because he left before modelling ended. St James’s Park places the monument among royal and military history.
The memorial is recorded as wheelchair accessible for people approaching this historic spot.
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