Guards Memorial - Brompton Cemetery, London, UK
N 51° 29.155 W 000° 11.570
30U E 694895 N 5707600
The Guards Memorial was placed to remember all those members of the Guards' that lost their lives in peacetime from 1854 until 1889. The surrounding marble headstones are for those that lost their lives from 1889 onwards.
Waymark Code: WM1214T
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/29/2020
Views: 2
The inscription at the base of the cross reads:
TRIA JUNCTA IN UNO
To the Memory of
Soldiers of the Brigade of Guards buried here since 1854.
This Cross is dedicated by their comrades
AD 1889
The Royal Parks website tells us:
An elegant marble cross stands guard over a field of eighteen white headstones, marking the burial place of many hundreds of peacetime casualties from the Brigade of Guards between 1854 and 1899.
The monument’s stepped base features oval reliefs of the badges of the three earliest Regiments of Guards: the Coldstream, Grenadier and Scots Guards. The monument, which is listed Grade II, includes pyramids of heaped cannonballs and gun barrels in Portland stone. It originally also featured brass field guns, which were removed in World War II. Some believed they were sent back to the front line.
Brompton Cemetery was the London District's Military Cemetery from 1854 to 1939. The Brigade of Guards established its own section for burials that year, and The Royal Hospital Chelsea purchased a plot for its veteran British Army soldiers.
The Brigade of Guards was established in 1856 to administer the British Army’s guards regiments, under the command of a major-general. Their headquarters were at Wellington Barracks at Westminster. After reorganisation in recent years, the Brigade became the Guards Division and includes the Welsh and Irish Guards.
The monument is Grade II listed with the entry at the Historic England website advising:
Commemorative monument. 1889. Mason/designer unknown.
Tall white marble cross on stepped base, standing on a two-stage plinth of grey granite with projecting angles, surrounded by eighteen trefoil-headed white marble headstones with lettering of affixed cast lead letters. On the stepped base are oval reliefs of the badges of the three earliest Regiments of Guards (the Coldstream, Grenadier and Scots) over the inscription 'TRIA JUNCTA IN UNO. To the Memory of / Soldiers of the Brigade of Guards buried here since 1854 / This Cross is dedicated by their comrades/ AD 1889'. Relief badges of the Welsh and Irish Guards on the sides.
Placed over the projecting angles are pyramids of heaped cannon balls. In the centre of each side of the base are gun barrels of Portland stone projecting outwards.
The marble headstones date from 1889 onwards and list names grouped by regiments.
History: the memorial marks the burial place of many hundred peacetime casualties of the Brigade of Guards. An imposing and unusual regimental memorial.