The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it is the United Kingdom's national memorial to the British and Commonwealth dead of the two world wars, and British casualties from later conflicts. The original Cenotaph was a temporary structure erected in 1919 for a parade celebrating the end of the First World War. Over 15,000 servicemen, including representatives from France and the United States, saluted the monument during the parade. The word "cenotaph" is derived from Greek, meaning "empty tomb". Most of the dead were buried close to where they fell; thus, the temporary Cenotaph came to symbolise the absent dead, and provided a focal point for the public's mourning. Over a million people visited the Cenotaph within a week of the parade, some of whom made pilgrimages from distant parts of the country.
Calls for a permanent Cenotaph began almost immediately. After some debate, the government agreed and construction work began in May 1920. Lutyens added entasis (curvature) but otherwise made minimal design alterations. The Cenotaph is built from Portland stone. It takes the form of a tomb chest atop a rectangular pylon, which diminishes as it rises. The memorial is austere, containing almost no decoration. From each side hang three flags. The permanent Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V on 11 November 1920 in a ceremony combined with the repatriation of the Unknown Warrior, an unidentified British serviceman to be interred in Westminster Abbey. After the unveiling, millions more people visited the Cenotaph and the Unknown Warrior. The memorial met with public acclaim and has been largely praised by academics, though some Christian organisations disapproved of its lack of overt religious symbolism.
The Cenotaph was the site of pilgrimages for years after its unveiling, and men removed their hats while passing it. Officials attempted to avoid censoring tributes but sometimes removed those with political messages. The Cenotaph has been the scene of several political protests and has been vandalised with spray paint twice in the 21st century. The National Service of Remembrance is held annually at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday; it is also the scene of other remembrance services. The Cenotaph is a grade I listed building and forms part of a national collection of Lutyens's war memorials. Dozens of replicas were built in Britain and other Commonwealth countries. While there was no set or agreed standard for First World War memorials, the Cenotaph proved to be one of the most influential. Lutyens designed several others, which all shared common features with the Whitehall monument. The Cenotaph has been the subject of several artworks and has featured in multiple works of literature, including a novel and several poems. The public acclaim for the monument was responsible for Lutyens becoming a national figure, and the Royal Institute of British Architects awarded him its Royal Gold Medal in 1921. For several years afterwards much of his time was taken up with war memorial commissions.
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