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Ploegsteert Memorial
The Memorial stands in Berks Cemetery Extension, Belgium which is located 9 miles south of Ypres town centre and about 4 miles north of Armentieres on the N365 leading to Ploegsteert village and then Armentieres and commemorates 11,447 officers and men of the United Kingdom and South African forces who fell in the Great War in the sector and who have no known grave. The memorial serves the area from the line Caestre-Dranoutre-Warnteton to the north, approximately the line of the River Douve, to Haverskerque-Estaires-Fournes to the south, including the towns of Hazebrouck, Merville, Baillleul and Armentieres, the Forest of Nieppe, and Ploegsteert Wood. The original intention had been to erect the memorial in Lille. Those commemorated by the Memorial did not die in major offensives, such as those which took place around Ypres to the north, or Loos to the south. Most were killed in the course of the day-to-day trench warfare which characterised this part of the line, or in small scale engagements usually carried out in support of the major attacks taking place elsewhere although those who fell in the Battle of Armentieres 1914, the Battles of the Lys in April 1918 and Outtersteene Ridge August 1918 are commemorated here. The Memorial takes the form of a circular temple with pillars guarded by two lions, one snarling and the other benign. The Memorial was designed by H. Charlton-Bradshaw and the sculptor was Sir Gilbert Ledward. | 
