Overview
The Armed Forces Memorial is a national monument in Staffordshire, dedicated to British servicemen and women killed on duty since the end of World War II. It was created following an announcement by the Secretary of State for Defence in 2000 and funded primarily through sales of a commemorative Trafalgar coin. The Memorial, designed by Liam O'Connor Architects and Ian Rank-Broadley, takes the form of an earth tumulus (mound) with a Portland stone circle and openings to the east and west. Within the circle are two straight stone walls with bronze sculptures at their centers, and the names of the 16,000 service personnel are carved into the Memorial's stone walls. The Memorial cost £6 million and was officially dedicated in 2007 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Why it was made
The memorial fills the gap after Commonwealth war-grave commemoration ended on 31 December 1947. It names service people killed from 1 January 1948 onward, whether in battle, terrorism, training, peacekeeping or exercises, rather than limiting remembrance to declared wars.
People and events
Liam O'Connor won the design competition and Ian Rank-Broadley made the bronze figures; Richard Kindersley cut the lettering. Public subscriptions, a Royal Mint Trafalgar coin and Millennium Commission grants funded the £6 million work. Queen Elizabeth II dedicated it on 12 October 2007.
How it worked
A 100-metre earth mound carries a Portland-stone circle and two walls cut with about 16,000 names, with room for 15,000 more. The opening is aligned so sunlight reaches the centre at eleven o'clock on 11 November. Rank-Broadley's groups show comrades carrying a wounded person and receiving a body, watched by grieving family.
What remains
The mound, stone circle, obelisk, name walls and bronze groups remain at the National Memorial Arboretum. New names can be added by year and service, keeping the monument open to later deaths instead of fixing it to the list present at the 2007 dedication.
Why it mattered
It gives one national list to deaths scattered across Korea, Malaya, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Iraq, Afghanistan, training and peacekeeping. The sun alignment returns that growing post-1947 list to the older Armistice Day act of remembrance each November.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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