Cenotaph

Over 200,000 men from Glasgow, about a fifth of the whole city population, served in the armed forces during the First World War. Around 18,000 were killed and 35,000 were injured. A war memorial committee was established, chaired by the Lord Provost Sir James Watson Stuart, which in 1920 agreed three proposals: to erect of a cenotaph as a public memorial in George Square; to provide financial support for the existing Prince Albert Memorial Workshops which had been opened in 1919 at Killearn Street in Possilpark to train disabled servicemen; and lastly any remaining funds would to be distributed to charity. The Prince Albert workshops continued from 1919 to 1923, before being combined with…

Designs for the public memorial were sought from several architects, including Robert Lorimer, Edwin Lutyens, and George Frampton, but in 1921 the committee selected a design by John James Burnet and Norman Aitken Dick. The design incorporates sculptures of stone lions and a stone statue of St Mungo by Ernest Gillick The memorial is constructed from polished light grey granite supplied by Scott and Rae. At its centre is a tall cenotaph in the form of truncated granite pylon some high supporting an empty sarcophagus, with a large gilded metal sword as a cross high up on the front (west) face. Lower on the west face is a stone statue of the city's patron saint, St Mungo, under a canopy,…