Imperial Camel Corps Memorial
The Imperial Camel Corps Memorial is an outdoor sculpture commemorating the Imperial Camel Corps, located in Victoria Embankment Gardens, on the Thames Embankment to the east of Charing Cross station, in London, United Kingdom. The unit of mounted infantry was created in December 1916 from troop that had served in the Gallipoli campaign in the Dardanelles.
The memorial was sculpted by Major Cecil Brown, who served in the corps, with bronze elements cast by the A. B. Burton foundry in Thames Ditton. It comprises a smaller-than-life-size bronze statue of a man riding a camel, on a Portland stone pedestal that bears bronze panels on its four sides. Two bronze plaques list the names of all 346 men who died while serving with the corps in Egypt, Sinai and Palestine between 1916 and 1918: 191 from Australia on the east plaque, and 106 from the UK, 41 from New Zealand, and 9 from India on the west plaque.[1] The bronze panel to the south depicts two soldiers running, and the fourth to the north depicts two officers next to a camel. Below the bronze panel, the north face of the stone plinth bears a dedicatory inscription:
To the Glorious and Immortal // Memory of the Officers, N.C.O.s and Men // of the Imperial Camel Corps – British, // Australian, New Zealand, Indian – who fell in action or died of wounds // and disease in Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine, 1916, 1917, 1918.[2]
The south face is inscribed with a list of the corps' engagements:
- 1916: Romani, Baharia, Mazar, Dakhla, Maghara, El. Arish, Maghdaba
- 1917: Rafa, Hassana, Gaza 1, Gaza 2, Sana Redoubt, Beersheba, Bir Khu Weilfe, Hill 265
- 1918: Amman, Jordan Valley, Mudawar (Hedjaz)[3]
Lieutenant-General Sir Philip Chetwode, who was the first commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, unveiled the memorial on 22 July 1921. Bishop of London Arthur Winnington-Ingram deliered the dedication.
The memorial received a Grade II listing in 1958.[4] Westminster City Council restored the memorial in 1999.[5]
References
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- ↑ National Heritage List for England, English Heritage
- ↑ War Memorials Archive, Imperial War Museum
External links
- Imperial Camel Corps Memorial at GoHistoric.com
- Imperial Camel Corps Memorial, Victoria Embankment Gardens. at The National Archives
- Imperial Camel Corps Memorial, c. 1927 at Nacius!
- Statues and Monuments in Westminster (pg. 19, PDF), City of Westminster
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