New Stone of Remembrance for Ambon Cemetery
10 January 2013
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has installed a Stone of
Remembrance at Ambon War Cemetery in Indonesia.
The stone - weighing eight tonnes - was quarried in Queensland
and shipped from Brisbane to Ambon via Djakarta.
The job was overseen by Bill MacPherson, CWGC Works Manager, who
hired a 20-tonne crane in Ambon to lower the stone into its final
place.
"The stone is a single block because that's the way it was
designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens," Bill said. "It had to be braced
inside the container during shipping, and then brought to the site
on a low loader. "
The Stone of Remembrance was envisaged by Lutyens as a permanent
monument, and he eventually designed a "great fair stone of fine
proportions, twelve feet in length, lying raised upon three steps."
It has been placed in the Ambon cemetery as a replacement for
the Cross of Sacrifice which had repeatedly been damaged.
The Cross of Sacrifice stands in Commonwealth cemeteries to
represent the faith of the majority of the fallen. The Stone of
Remembrance is non-denominational, representing those of all faiths
of none. Each Stone bears an inscription, chosen by Rudyard
Kipling from the Bible: "Their Name Liveth For Evermore".