Bradford Cenotaph

Bradford War Memorial commemorates the 37,000 men the English city of Bradford who served in the British Armed Forces in the First World War. Many of the 5,000 dead had served in the two Bradford Pals battalions and were killed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the First Battle of the Somme. The stone pylon with bronze statues was unveiled on 1 July 1922, in Victoria Square, beside Prince's Way, to the northeast of the Grade II listed Queen Victoria Memorial. A bronze plaque was added after the Second World War, and the memorial also commemorates later conflicts. It stands between the National Media Museum and Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, and was Grade II listed in 2016. The memorial was designed by Bradford's city architect Walter Williamson, with sculpture by H.H. Martyn & Co. of Cheltenham. It comprises a 4.35 metres (14.3 ft) high central tapering pylon made from stone from the nearby Bolton Woods quarry, topped by a stone sarcophagus. The front and rear face of the pylon are carved with a cross, the lower arm of which becomes a sword blade passing through a wreath. The front wreath has a scroll with the words "PRO PATRI MORI". Either side of the pylon bears a winged wreath with the letters "RAF". The pylon stands an oval platform, with steps down to the road passing by. Two bronze statues stand on the stepped base, one to either side of the central pylon, a soldier to the left and a sailor to the right, each lunging forward with a rifle. Historic England attributes the bronze sculptures to Robert Lindsey Clark (father of Philip Lindsey Clark) who was head sculptor at Martyns from 1905 to 1926. The warlike pose of the soldiers was controversial when the memorial was first unveiled. Originally each rifle had a fixed bayonet; the blades were damaged in 1969 and then removed, but the hilt of each bayonet remains in place. The front of the pylon originally bore the dedicatory inscription "TO THE IMMORTAL HONOUR OF THE MEN / OF THE CITY OF BRADFORD WHO SERVED / THEIR…