Dr. Pierre du Prey, Queen’s University

The architects of the World War I Imperial War Graves Commission shared a prevalent bias against the use of sculpture on the monuments they were about to erect. This explains the architectural quality of most of them, notably those by Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869 – 1944) at Étaples, Villers-Bretonneux, and Thiepval. Unconstrained by such guidelines, the Toronto-based architect/sculptor Walter Allward worked independently for the Canadian Battlefields Memorials Commission. His imposing sculptural groups on the Vimy Memorial contrast markedly with Lutyens’s more abstract use of flags and wreaths to communicate the same poignant message. This paper explores their individual approaches; at the same time it sheds light on the different ways they allied the sister arts of architecture and sculpture under one somber banner.