From the outset the Commissioners were determined to employ the
very best architects to carry out their vision to create a worthy
and lasting memorial to the 1.1 million dead of the First World
War. To that end they engaged three principal architects: Sir
Edwin Lutyens, Sir Reginald Blomfield and Sir Herbert Baker.
Closely aided by Charles Holden and working with so-called
junior architects, including Wilhelm Clement von Berg, W. H.
Cowlishaw and N.A. Rew, the principal architects were
predominantly active in Belgium and Northern France, where their
work is complemented by C.S. Jagger's rugged and realistic
sculptures of soldiers, the stone figures carved by Eric Kennington
and a specially commissioned font created by Macdonald Gill which
is used for all headstone inscriptions.
Further afield Sir Robert Lorimer was responsible for Italy and
Greece, while Sir John Burnet took on the task of creating
cemeteries and memorials on the Gallipoli peninsula. Edward
Warren worked in the Middle East.
After the Second World War further cemeteries and memorials were
needed, often in countries where there we had not worked
before. The Commissioners were determined to maintain the
high standards set in the aftermath of the First World War and
engaged Sir Hubert Worthington, Philip Hepworth and Sir Edward
Maufe, to guide the building programmes.