For many of us the Battle of the Somme, and particularly the first day of fighting, is a synonym for the bloodiness of the Great War. And 1st of July 1916 is not just a byword for appalling casualties, but localised disaster, too, as the Pals battalions suffered huge losses plunging entire communities across the British Isles and Newfoundland into deep mourning. But almost a year earlier the Battle of Loos brought an awful foretaste of that dreadful experience. For the two places where I have spent the vast majority of my life, London and Kent, the Battle of Loos, 25 September - 13 October 1915, brought about the greatest concentration of death in the entire war. It’s then no wonder that the Battle of Loos was remembered with such intensity in those communities throughout the twenties and thirties.
I first became aware of this while researching for my PhD. Working on war memorials and Armistice Day rituals in the City of London and East London, the local newspapers recorded the number of parades at war memorials on 25 September each year commemorating the first day of the battle of Loos, the number of In Memoriam notices, and the regimental reunion dinners. In particular, I saw that the London Troops memorial in front of the Royal Exchange was a focus for activity. Unveiled on 12 November 1920, the memorial was designed by Sir Aston Webb and is in the form of a Portland Stone column carved with the crests of the City and County of London and topped by a lion. Its most arresting features are the two bronze soldiers sculpted by Alfred Drury. They are very fine pieces of work from a very fine sculptor, and perhaps the deepest impression they make is one of slight antiquity, of being slightly out of their time, even in 1920.
The figures are graceful, noble. I sometimes wonder if a few bits of khaki kit could be placed on Derwent Wood’s naked David, sculpted for the Machine Gun Corps memorial at Hyde Park Corner, we’d be able to tell the difference. One of the figures is a cavalry trooper, complete with bandolier and spurs, while the other is an infantryman. Crucially for the overall effect, both figures wear the peaked soft caps of the first years of the war. This makes them men of a bygone era. If someone said it was a memorial to the South African War, it probably wouldn’t come as a surprise. These are pre-Somme and pre-Passchendaele men; they don’t wear the steel helmet of Sargeant Jagger’s figures at Hyde Park Corner. Even the five very smart guardsmen sculpted by Gilbert Ledward for the Guards war memorial, units of the British army steeped in tradition, reflect the fighting of the later battles, with their uniform complete with steel helmet and box respirator.
The London Troops memorial is infused with a sense of those early battles, and in particular the huge sacrifices made by the London Territorials at Loos on 25 September 1915. Come on a London memorials walk with me and we’ll consider the complexities of remembrance together.
