SPHINX WW1 AIR RAID

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Reference WMO/84779

Address:

Victoria Embankment

Charing Cross

Westminster

London

England

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War Memorials Trust case: War Memorials Trust needs to avoid Contributors changing location/description details as we help to protect and conserve this war memorial through our casework. You can still add photographs, update condition and use the tabs below. If you believe any of the information you cannot edit is wrong or information is missing, please make a note of the reference number and include it in your email when you contact us.

Status: On original site
Type: Non freestanding
Location: External
Setting: Roadside
Description: Board/Plaque/ Tablet
Conflicts:
  • First World War (1914-1918)
About the memorial: From IWM: 'Obelisk incised with Egyptian hieroglyphs, dating to circa 1570 BC. Obelisk is mounted on a plinth and flanked by two sculpted Sphinxes, which were erected alongside the obelisk in 1878. The obelisk was a gift of the viceroy of Egypt, to commemorate the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. A brass plaque is set within the stonework of the plinth supporting one of the two sphinx that face onto Cleopatra's needle. The plaque commemorates the unrepaired damage caused to the plinth by the first raid by German planes in London during the First World War.'
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From IWM: 'Cleopatra's Needle, Shaft: (Egyptian hieroglyphics) Cleopatra's Needle, Plaque, River facing: THIS OBELISK, HAVING FALLEN PROSTRATE IN THE SAND AT ALEXANDRIA,/ WAS IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE/ OF NELSON AND ABERCROMBY,/ PRESENTED TO THE BRITISH NATION, A.D. 1819,/ BY MOHAMMED ALI, VICEROY OF EGYPT. ENCASED IN AN IRON CYLINDER IT WAS ROLLED INTO/ THE SEA/ AUGUST 29, 1877./ ABANDONED IN A STORM IN THE BAY OF BISCAY,/ IT WAS RECOVERED AND TAKEN INTO FERROL HARBOUR/ WHENCE, IN CHARGE OF CAPTAIN CARTER, IT REACHED/ THE THAMES, JANUARY 20, 1878. Plaque on the plinth of the Sphinx: THE SCARS THAT DISFIGURE THE PEDESTAL/ OF THE OBELISK, THE BASES OF THE SPHINXES/ AND THE RIGHT SPHINX, WERE CAUSED/ BY FRAGMENTS OF A BOMB DROPPED IN THE/ ROADWAY CLOSE TO THIS SPOT, IN THE FIRST RAID ON LONDON BY GERMAN AEROPLANES A/ FEW MINUTES BEFORE MIDNIGHT ON TUESDAY/ 4TH SEPTEMBER 1917'

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