The Civic District I

A Cenotaph

A cenotaph is a sepulchral (pertaining to or serving as a tomb) monument erected in memory of a deceased person whose body is buried elsewhere.

The Cenotaph

This was memorial was unveiled on 31 March 1922 by The Prince of Wales, his Royal Highness Edward VIII during his tour of Malaya, India, Australia and New Zealand. It monument commemorates the 124 men from the Straits Settlement who die in action during World War II.

Although officially unveiled in 1922, the foundation stone for The Cenotaph was laid in 1920 in a solem ceremony by His Excellency Sir Lawrence Nunns Guillemard who was the Governor of the Straits Settlements. This ceremony was witnessed by M. Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France and Minister of War and the Major-General Sir D.H. Ridout, General Officer commanding the troops. After World War II, a dedication was added on the reverse side to commemorate those who died in the second war.

The Structure

This sixty feet high granite sepulchral structure was designed by Denis Santry of Messrs Swan & McLaren.
Bronze Tablets - Bears the name of men from the Straits Settlement who died in World War I.
Steps - Bears the dates of the World War I.
Sarcophagus - A bronze lion beneath a bronze medallion with a laurel wreath of victory enclosing a crown. It is very symbolic as the crown denotes The Crown these men rallied under and it also represents the Crown Colony.
14 Pylons - These contains lists of names of famous battles and each battle is crowned by a laurel wreath.



Haunting...

"They died so we might live"

This hunting phrase is inscribed in English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil and it reminds us of another quote by Sir Winston Churchill.

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

The two phrases remind us that there are those who heed the call of mankind knowing that they may not be alive to taste the freedom which is consequential of their actions. To these brave souls we do indeed owe for they did die so that we might live.




Trivia

Did you know that The Cenotaph was modelled after the Sir Edwin Lutyens Whitehall Cenotaph which is in Whitehall, London?
Did you know that The Cenotaph was created with just hammer and chisel?

Please click on the picture(s) to view the enlarged version(s)