London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom

South African War Memorial, Richmond Cemetery

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, United Kingdom

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Located in Richmond Cemetery in southwest London, the South African War Memorial is a cenotaph designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1921. Commissioned by the South African Hospital and Comforts Fund Committee, it commemorates 39 South African soldiers who died of wounds sustained during the First World War while receiving treatment at a military hospital in Richmond Park. Modeled on Lutyens's celebrated Whitehall Cenotaph, the memorial became a site of pilgrimage for visitors from South Africa throughout the 1920s and 1930s, though it subsequently fell into relative obscurity until the Commonwealth War Graves Commission assumed responsibility for its maintenance in the 1980s. The memorial was granted Grade II listed status in 2012.