The City of Portsmouth War Memorial, also referred to as the Guildhall Square War Memorial, is a First World War memorial in Guildhall Square in the centre of Portsmouth, Hampshire, on the south coast of England. Portsmouth was and remains a port and home to a major naval dockyard. The dockyard and the armed forces provided much of the employment in the area in the early 20th century. As such, the town suffered significant losses in the First World War. Planning for a war memorial began shortly after the end of the conflict and a committee was established for the purpose. It selected a site adjacent to a railway embankment close to the Town Hall (renamed the Guildhall in 1926 when Portsmouth was granted city status) and chose the architects James Gibson and Walter Gordon, with sculptural elements by Charles Sargeant Jagger, from an open competition.
The memorial consists of a semi-circular sunken recess (exedra) with a screen wall. Bronze panels fixed to the wall list the names of the city's dead. Archways in the wall lead out of Guildhall Square towards Victoria Park and the railway station, and balustrades lead away back into Guildhall Square, terminating in sculptures by Jagger of a life-size soldier and sailor with machine guns. In the centre is a cenotaph surmounted with an urn and decorated on the sides with relief carvings of wartime scenes. Prince Arthur unveiled the memorial on 19 October 1921, before its completion.
Guildhall Square was redeveloped in the 1970s and the memorial was adjusted slightly and another wall was created adjacent to the site. The names of casualties from the Second World War and a monument to that conflict were added in the 21st century. The First World War memorial is a grade II* listed building.
Background
In the aftermath of the First World War and its unprecedented casualties, thousands of war memorials were built across Britain; nearly every town and city erected some sort of memorial. Portsmouth was and remains a port city and home to a major naval base. As such, many of the city's residents served in the Royal Navy or embarked on ships to fight in the British Army. Immediately before the war, over 25 per cent of Portsmouth's male working-age population served in the army or the navy and many more were employed in the dockyard. Around 6,000 Portsmouth residents were killed in the war, out of a population of around 200,000 and a workforce of around 85,000 as of the 1911 census. In 1914, 15,000 people were employed in the naval dockyard, a number which had more than doubled since the turn of the century as a result of the Anglo-German naval arms race.
The first local casualties of the war came from the sinking of by a German mine within hours of Britain's entry into the war in August 1914. One of the largest groups of casualties came from the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the largest naval engagement of the conflict. Six Portsmouth-based ships were sunk at Jutland, with the loss of 4,000 lives, many of them local men.
Portsmouth was also a significant garrison town, with soldiers stationed there for the defence of the south coast and others en route to other points in the British Empire. In 1914, the 9th Infantry Brigade was barracked in Portsmouth and, at the outbreak of war, formed part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to France. Portsmouth additionally maintained a significant part-time volunteer Territorial Force unit—the Portsmouth Troop of the Hampshire Yeomanry, the officers of which included many of the town's dignitaries. With the foundation of Kitchener's Army and the call for volunteers, the town and surrounding area raised a further two pals battalions. Local historians estimate that more than one-third of the volunteers were killed.