Hove War Memorial

Hove War Memorial is a First World War memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and located on Grand Avenue in Hove, part of the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. Hove was the site of one of the earliest recruiting events at the beginning of the war and later of several military hospitals. Over 600 men from the town were killed during the war, a quarter of them from the local regiment alone. A war memorial committee was established in 1919 and Lutyens was engaged as architect. A design was agreed in 1920 after two unsuccessful proposals; Lutyens chose the site from several options. Lutyens designed a Tuscan column on a three-staged base, topped with a statue of Saint George, patron saint of England. George, cast in the studio of Sir George Frampton, holds a sword by the blade in one hand and a shield in the other. The same statue, with variations, appears on several of Frampton's other monuments, including Fordham War Memorial in Cambridgeshire, also by Lutyens. The base contains several dedicatory inscriptions but no names, which are instead recorded on plaques in the town's library. The memorial was unveiled on 27 February 1921 by Lord Leconfield; Lutyens, in India, was represented by his office manager. It is a Grade II listed building.