Villers-Bretonneux Memorial

Australian National Memorial, Villers–Bretonneux
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
View of the memorial tower (left) and Cross of Sacrifice (right)
For Australian Imperial Force
Unveiled	22 July 1938
Location	49°53′12.76″N 02°30′45.97″E / 49.8868778°N 2.5127694°E / 49.8868778; 2.5127694Coordinates: 49°53′12.76″N 02°30′45.97″E / 49.8868778°N 2.5127694°E / 49.8868778; 2.5127694
Designed by	Sir Edwin Lutyens
To the Glory of God and in memory of the Australian Imperial Force in France and Flanders 1916–1918 and of eleven thousand who fell in France and have no known grave
Statistics source: Cemetery Details. Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Australian National Memorial, Villers–Bretonneux is the main memorial to Australian military personnel killed on the Western Front during World War I. It is located on the Route Villiers-Bretonneux (D 23), between the towns of Fouilloy and Villers-Bretonneux, in the Somme département, France. The memorial lists 10,773 names of soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force with no known grave who were killed between 1916, when Australian forces arrived in France and Belgium, and the end of the war. The location was chosen to commemorate the role played by Australian soldiers in the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux (24–27 April 1918).

Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial consists of a tower within the Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, which also includes a Cross of Sacrifice. The tower is surrounded by walls and panels on which the names of the missing dead are listed. The main inscription is in both French and English, on either side of the entrance to the tower. The memorial and cemetery are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Following the war, the commander of the Australian Corps, Lieutenant General Sir Talbot Hobbs chose the sites of several Australian memorials in Europe and proposed that a memorial to all of the Australian dead on the Western Front be built in France, in the Villers-Bretonneux area. The proposal was approved by the Australian government – still led by wartime Prime Minister Billy Hughes – in 1923. A competition to design the memorial was held in 1925. It was open only to Australian veterans and their parents; their entries were required to use only stone quarried in Australia. The competition was won by the Melbourne architect William Lucas. In 1929, the French government gave its approval to the project.