The Homecoming, Cambridge War Memorial, Hill’s Road

This war memorial can be found just outside the Botanic Gardens and is a rather well done figure of a marching soldier by Canadian sculptor Robert Tait McKenzie. He also designed the Scots American War Memorial in Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Dedicated to the men of Cambridgeshire and Ely who fought in the First World War (the dedication to the Second World War was added later) the memorial takes the form of a soldier striding along, returning from the horrors of war but looking back towards the Railway Station, remembering those who would not be returning. As well as his own helmet he has a German helmet slung across his back, presumably taken as a kind of trophy and is holding a rose.

It was first erected in 1922 further down from its present site and moved in 2012 to its present location. The model for the statue was a soldier and undergraduate at Christ’s College, Cambridge called Kenneth Hamilton.

This rather lovely design on the plinth is of the coat of arms of Cambridge University and its motto (around the shield) which loosely translates as “From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge”.

It feels like a bit of an unusual memorial, being slightly more upbeat than the average, but then it was remembering the war that was supposed to end all wars and we all know how that turned out.