Designing Memory: The Junior Architects of the Imperial War Graves Commission and the Creation of a Spatial Memorial in the British War Cemeteries on the Western Front

The history of the Imperial and later Commonwealth War Graves Commission has been defined by the key personalities who formed and shaped its principles. Individuals such as Sir Fabian Ware, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Herbert Baker have received a great deal of the limited attention that has been given to the organisation. Little consideration has been given to the design of the cemeteries beyond the principle of equal commemoration and virtually no consideration has been given to the role of the Junior Architects. This thesis will explore the architectural project undertaken on the old Western Front, examining the design policies and approaches taken by the Commission and by the cadre of Junior Architects to create a much more nuanced memorial to the experience of serving in the First World War. It will show how the decision to employ a group of young architects, all of whom had served in the British Army during the war and had a direct connection with the landscape they were working within, enabled an understanding of the war time experience to be retained with the architectural treatment of the cemeteries. Using the extant architecture of the Commission and supporting this with the original trench maps, cemetery plans and design notes, this thesis will show how role of the Junior Architect in the process was central to the creation of a memorial not only to the dead, but to the experience of war and to the spaces and places of the wartime landscape.