Soissons Memorial

The Soissons Memorial to the Missing is just below Soissons Cathedral, facing the Pont d'Anglais.

The Memorial commemorates the missing of the British IX and XXII Corps, which fought during the July and August 1918 battles on the Aisne and the Marne. There are 3,987 names engraved on the panels.

The Memorial has an unusual sculptural group, by Eric Kennington, comprising three soldiers in their greatcoats standing shoulder to shoulder, two of them with their gas masks in the alert position. In front of the middle soldier is a rifle butt planted in the ground with a helmet on it.

Amongst those commemorated on the Memorial is Albert Ormerod, of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts. and Derby Regiment), who was killed on 27 May 1918, the first day of the German offensive on the Aisne.

WHEN THE FRENCH ARMIES / HELD AND DROVE BACK THE / ENEMY FROM THE AISNE AND / THE MARNE BETWEEN MAY / AND JULY 1918 THE 8TH, 15TH, 19TH / 21ST, 25TH, 34TH, 50TH, 51ST AND 62ND / DIVISIONS OF THE BRITISH / ARMIES SERVED IN THE LINE / WITH THEM AND SHARED / THE COMMON SACRIFICE. / HERE ARE RECORDED THE / NAMES OF 3987 OFFICERS / AND MEN OF THOSE / DIVISIONS TO WHOM THE / FORTUNE OF WAR DENIED / THE KNOWN AND HONOURED / BURIAL GIVEN TO THEIR / COMRADES IN DEATH.

ORMEROD A. (Albert Ormerod, of the Sherwood Foresters (Notts. and Derby Regiment), died on 27 May 1918)