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Origin and history

The Pozières Memorial, also known as the Column Cemetery, is a World War I memorial in Ovillers-la-Boisselle, Somme. Built on the edge of the 929 departmental road, it marked the site nicknamed "Tramway Crossing" or "Red Cross Corner" by British soldiers in 1916. This place pays tribute to more than 14,000 British soldiers and 300 South Africans who disappeared between March and August 1918, whose bodies were never found. The names of 14,649 victims, classified by regiment, are engraved on the walls of the memorial, conceived as a peristyle open on three sides, with a cross of the Sacrifice in the center.

The memorial was designed by architect William Harrison Cowlishaw, while the sculptures were made by Laurence A. Turner. Inaugurated on 4 August 1930 by General Horace Smith-Dorrian, former commander of the 2nd British Army, he surrounded a cemetery housing 2,756 burials, including those of Australian, British, Canadian and German soldiers. The bodies came mostly from the battles of 1916 (Pozières) and 1918 (Offensive des Cent-Jours). The site, protected since 2016, hosted commemorative ceremonies, such as the visit of François Hollande and David Cameron in 2016 for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme.

In 2016, three Australian soldiers were reburied in the cemetery in the presence of officials, including Australian Minister Dan Tehan. The memorial also symbolizes the last major German offensive (Kaiser Battle), which had pushed the 5th British Army back to Villers-Bretonneux. Its architecture, combining colonnade and monumental cross, makes it a major place of memory of the Circuit du Souvenir in the Hauts-de-France. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission now manages it alongside local authorities.

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