The Armed Forces Memorial © National Memorial Arboretum
This national memorial is dedicated to personnel the Armed Forces who have been killed on duty or through terrorist action since the Second World War. Members of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and the Merchant Navy who died in conflict zones while in direct support of the Armed Forces are also recorded. With the exception of casualties from the Palestine Campaign 1945-1948, the casualties recorded on its walls died after 1 January 1948; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission having recorded casualties up to 31 December 1947. In addition, a memorial on the wall of the South Cloister of Westminster Abbey is dedicated to members of the Armed Forces and Auxiliary Forces killed since the end of the Second World War.
Announced by the Secretary of State for Defence on 10 November 2000, the Armed Forces Memorial was dedicated on 12 October 2007. It sits within the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and comprises an earth mound, 100 metres in diameter, surmounted by a circle of Portland stone, which has openings in the east and west and an obelisk at the eastern end. Inside the circle are two stone walls, in front of which are large bronze sculptures by Ian Rank-Broadley. The names of the fallen are inscribed on the memorial’s walls.
The Armed Forces Roll of Honour records the names of those who appear on the Memorial and also the names of those others who died while in service, regardless of cause. The Roll of Honour may be searched online here. In addition to the construction of the Armed Forces Memorial, it was announced in 2006 that the names of those recorded in the Roll of Honour would be inscribed in books that would be publicly displayed.[1] The Royal Air Force Roll of Honour was already in place at St. Clement Danes, London. It was intended that the Royal Navy Roll of Honour would be displayed at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London and the Army Roll of Honour at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. In response to a Freedom of Information request in September 2023 querying the status of the Royal Navy and Army rolls, the Ministry of Defence responded that the Army Roll of Honour is being ‘compiled into four leather-bound volumes and once completed, it is planned to be displayed in the National Army Museum‘ with an aim to ‘have this ready in time for Remembrance Day‘. (Update April 2025: This does not appear to have been completed.) No information was available regarding the Royal Navy Roll of Honour (which is not yet at St Martin-in-the-Fields).[2]
The Armed Forces Memorial © National Memorial Arboretum
Back to Commemorating Royal Signals’ War Dead
The Armed Forces guide to the Memorial and Roll of Honour for bereaved families may be found here:
1. (Back) Tom Watson MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Veterans) in response to a written parliamentary question, 17 May 2006. (Hansard: HC Deb, 17 May 2006, c964W).
2. (Back) Army Policy and Secretariat, ArmySec/HM/H/FOI2023/11595 dated 19 October 2023.