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TheRoyal Fusiliers War Memorial is a memorial in London, dedicated to the members of theRoyal Fusiliers killed in the World Wars, Russian Civil War and subsequent conflicts, along with members of a number ofLondon Regiment battalions killed in the First World War. It consists of a bronze statue on a 16.5 feet (5.0 m) pedestal made ofPortland stone.
It was erected in 1922 atHolborn Bar, one of the ancient entry points to theCity of London, on a traffic island in the middle ofHigh Holborn, on the City's boundary with theLondon Borough of Camden, denoted by adragon boundary mark on either side of the street. The site is near High Holborn's junction withGray's Inn Road, and is close to the historicStaple Inn.
An original intention to erect a memorial to the Royal London Fusiliers in aRoyal Park shifted toHounslow Barracks and then Holborn. A subscription list opened in 1919 and raised £3,000 by August 1920. The monument was unveiled by theLord Mayor of London on 4 November 1922. The church ofSt Sepulchre-without-Newgate, about 450 yards (410 m) east of the memorial, was selected as the regimental chapel in 1946. The memorial became a Grade IIlisted structure in 1972, upgraded to Grade II* in July 2017.
The main inscription is on the west-facing front of the pedestal below a bronze relief of the Tudor Rose from the regimental badge and states the memorial's dedication to the almost 22,000 soldiers of Royal Fusiliers who died during theFirst World War andRussian Civil War, with later additions commemorating the Royal Fusiliers who died during theSecond World War and in subsequent conflicts. A bronze plaque on the pedestal's east-facing reverse lists 47regular,Territorial,service,reserve,special reserve, extra, garrison andlabour battalions of the Royal Fusiliers which served between 1914 and 1919, along with a number of London Regiment battalions whose predecessors had been attached to the Royal Fusiliers prior to 1908.[a]
The 8.5 feet (2.6 m) high bronze statue was designed byAlbert Toft and cast byA.B. Burton at theThames Ditton Foundry, with Cheadle and Harding as architects. It is said to be modelled on a Sergeant Cox, who served throughout the First World War. It depicts a private soldier inservice dress, carrying a rifle with fixed bayonet in his right hand, facing along the road to the west to guard the entrance to the City of London. An identical statue is one of five bronze figures by Toft forming a sculpture group forOldham War Memorial, unveiled in 1923. The same single bronze figure was unveiled in 1932 as the memorial to the41st Division atFlers, near the site of theBattle of Flers-Courcelette, where tanks were used in battle for the first time on 15 September 1916.
51°31′05″N0°06′39″W / 51.51811°N 0.11083°W /51.51811; -0.11083
