Great Yarmouth War Memorial

Description

The design of the war memorial at Great Yarmouth is one of the rare occasions when Lutyens was actually sacked from a project. He was appointed soon after the end of the war and a model of his splendid scheme, which included two cenotaphs, a War Cross, Stone of Remembrance and water tanks, was included in an exhibition of war memorials held at the Royal Academy in 1919. The problem, which soon became all too apparent, was that the likely cost far exceeded the £5,000 budget that the architect had been given. Even by making omissions Lutyens could not get the figure below £6,495, but this was less than the subsequent tenders from potential builders, which ranged from £7,750 to £10,267. However, rather than trim the design (which would have been possible given that it was made from a number of separate components), the War Memorial Committee decided that they had had enough and Lutyens’s contract was terminated with a payment of £157/10/- to cover both his fees and those of his quantity surveyor, E Desch. A separate payment of £95 to Messrs G Jackson covered the cost of the model.

The eventual memorial cost £3,836/18/ and was designed by a local architect F R B Howard, who charged nothing apart from out of pocket expenses. It was unveiled by Prince Henry on 7 January 1922. (Contributor: Tim Skelton)

Bibliography

Also Cited In

Gliddon, G. and Skelton, T.J. (2008) Lutyens and the Great War. London: Frances Lincoln.

Listing Grade

N/A

Listing Reference

Client