Swansea War Memorial

About

Swansea War Memorial, also known as Swansea Cenotaph, is a war memorial on the promenade beside Mumbles Road, the A4067, near Brynmill to the southwest of Swansea city centre, overlooking Swansea Beach and Swansea Bay. It was designed by the borough architect, Ernest Morgan, and closely resembles Edwin Lutyens' Cenotaph in London. The memorial cost £3,000, raised by public subscription: over £9,000 was donated, and £3,000 of the excess was directed to assist the children of the fallen.

A foundation stone was laid by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig on 1 July 1922. The competed memorial was unveiled by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Doveton Sturdee a year later, on 21 July 1923, with a dedication by the vicar of Swansea, Prebendary Cecil Wilson. The memorial comprises a tall rectangular Portland stone pylon, about 2 m × 4 m (6 ft 7 in × 13 ft 1 in) in section and 9 m (30 ft) high, standing on three steps, topped by a stone chest (the symbolically empty tomb or "cenotaph").

The sides of the pylon bear bronze low reliefs: on both short sides are bronze wreaths and the dates "1914-1918" and "1939-1945"; the long side facing the sea bears a bronze anchor within a wreath; and the long...