(This post marks the fourth anniversary of the second Iraq war, which began this week in 2003.)

After months of researching the Memorial to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval, I have found two books with photographs that clearly display the name structure on each pier face.  As mentioned in my post, Comrades in Vietnam and the Somme, regiments are listed by British Army order of precedence.  The photos each show a pier face with twelve columns divided into six sets of two columns.  At the top of each set is the regiment whose names appear in the columns below.

If the regiment’s names completely fill one set of two columns, they are read as usual from top to bottom, left column, then right column.  The names are divided by rank, in alphabetical order within the ranks.  If regimental casualties require more than two columns, the names continue from the bottom of the right column to the top left of the next set of columns.  If they do not fill these two columns, the names are divided equally between the left and right side, with the next regiment appearing below.  A diagram showing the arrangement design follows this post.

Courage Remembered, a book about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, has one of the photos.  The authors state that a point of interest when viewing a memorial is the “layout of the names” (p. 109).  Yet they do not describe the arrangement.  The other photo is in The Immortal Heritage, by Fabian Ware, the Commission’s founder, who also does not discuss the arrangement.  The Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a 214 page book devoted to this one memorial.  Its author Gavin Stamp does not even mention that the names are listed by regiment in order of precedence, let alone describe the complex organizational structure on the piers, although he does provide minute details about Edwin Lutyens’ architecture.

Can you imagine requiring four months of research to discover that the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial are in order of casualty?  There the name arrangement is a primary descriptive feature.  Maya Lin put the names first and her design became one of the world’s most admired memorials.

Lutyen’s architecture, with its interweaving arches, is certainly beautiful, but so is the complex and elegant name structure.  The purpose of the Somme Memorial is to honor Commonwealth soldiers whose bodies were never found.  Architecture overwhelms its own mission when we admire the picture frame and not the picture.

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