Mémorial de Thiepval (Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme)

The Thiepval Memorial, built and now managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), is the largest Commonwealth memorial in the world. The 45-metre-high monument bears the names of over 72,000 British and South African soldiers who fell on the Somme battlefields between July 1915 and March 1918 and have no known grave. The Memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and inaugurated on August 1, 1932, in the presence of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VIII, and the President of the French Republic, Albert Lebrun. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission honors the 1,700,000 men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two world wars, and maintains their graves and memorials at 23,000 sites in over 150 countries. In the Somme, more than 150,000 Commonwealth soldiers are buried in 250 military cemeteries and 150 civilian cemeteries. For more information on the CWGC, visit our website: www.cwgc.org World Heritage Site.