Pozières Memorial: A Somber Tribute

The Pozières Memorial stands near the village of Pozières in the Somme department of France. It commemorates the soldiers of the United Kingdom and South Africa who died during a crucial period of World War I, from March 21 to August 7, 1918. These were men who fought on the Somme battlefields during the German Spring Offensive and the subsequent Allied recovery, and who have no known grave. The memorial lists the names of 14,657 soldiers of the United Kingdom and 300 soldiers of the South African forces. The memorial itself forms the perimeter of the Pozières British Cemetery, where over 2,700 Commonwealth servicemen are buried or commemorated. The cemetery includes original burials from 1916, 1917 and 1918, alongside graves moved from surrounding battlefields after the Armistice. The memorial's design, by W.H. Cowlishaw with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner, features an open arcade and stone tablets bearing the names of the dead, grouped by regiment. It was unveiled on August 4, 1930, by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien. The site is located on the north side of the D929 road from Albert to Bapaume, just south of Pozières. While the memorial stands in a cemetery with many Australian graves, it does not include any Australian names, as those soldiers are commemorated at the National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux.