Otago Sculpture Trust

The Cenotaph.............. Queens' Gardens......................... William Gummer, architect.

Such were the numbers of men killed in what was called the Great War of 1914-18 that it seemed inconceivable that a single monument could signify their loss. Forty-one men had died in New Zealand's previous overseas adventure the Boer Wars. This time a single school, Waitaki Boys High School, supplied 700 volunteer soldiers from its former pupils, 120 of whom died. The problem was the same throughout the world. In London the great architect Edward Lutyens came up with a solution. He designed a temporary structure which he called a cenotaph, from the Greek meaning empty tomb, and his original model came to set the standard for monuments all over the world.

William Gummer, from the Auckland firm Prouse and Gummer, was the monumental architect selected in a competition of 63 entries to build Dunedin's monument. He had worked with Lutyens in London and had a close association with Richard Gross, the pre-eminent sculptor of the day in New Zealand. Some of the characteristics of Gummer's design had already been tried out on an earlier commission for Auckland Grammar School.

Dunedin's Cenotaph is octagonal in shape. Gummer felt this was appropriate in an irregular space. It is a column, almost twenty-eight metres high, topped with a symbolic beacon, signifying the fame of the dead. Originally the lower base was to have bronze reliefs around it showing battle scenes but the budget of £10,000 did not run to this. Nonetheless Gummer's elegant spire, sheathed in Carrara marble makes a dignified memorial.

The surface decoration was by Richard Gross. Near the top of  the shaft a cross emerges form the marble on four faces. The rest of the decoration is classical in origin, associating the triumph of the British Empire with that of Rome. On two sides there is an emblem comprising a torch superimposed upon a laurel wreath flanked by two palm leaves. The torch is a symbol of life. The laurel wreath was worn by Roman Emperors when celebrating a triumph while the palm branch was a symbol of victory in the Roman army. It was adopted by the early Christians to signify their victory over death.

This triumphalism is sustained on the lower decorations. On one face an Imperial lion lies, ever alert, in a panel that is surmounted by the inscription "The Glorious Dead" (a reference to Trajan's column in Rome) and flanked on each side by an axe bound together with a bundle of rods. These are known as fasces and were to become the symbol of the fascist armies against which New Zealand fought in 1939-45. This has caused some comment especially since above the lion have been added the dates of that war. This conjunction is only accidentally ironic. The fasces are part of  the Imperial theme. They were Roman symbols of justice and power. An adjoining inscription commemorates overseas campaigns between the nyears of 1949 and 1975: Korea, Malaya, Borneo, and Vietnam.

Richard Dingwall