Manifold instruments of carnage: Images of weapons technology and imaginings of World War I combat in Charles Sargeant Jagger's Royal Artillery Memorial, London (192125)

Abstract

This article explores the representation of weaponry and combat by British artist Charles Sargeant Jagger (18851934) on the memorial to the World War I dead of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, situated at Hyde Park Corner, London. The article will argue that the work in bronze and stone Jagger created for the memorial, between 1921 and 1924, was profoundly shaped by his visceral experience of front-line combat as an infantry officer in the British Army at Gallipoli (1915) and during several months on the Western Front (191718). Jagger paid detailed and informed attention to the selection of weapons represented on the memorial. This article also discusses the particular significance of Jagger's choice of object to crown the memorial: an over-life-sized reproduction in stone of one of the most fearsome and effective artillery pieces operated by any combatant during the war the 9.2-inch siege howitzer. It also addresses the reasons why Jagger selected the imagery he did for the memorial's series of low-relief panels, arguing that his primary concern was appeal to World War I veterans of the regiment rather than to a civilian, non-combatant audience. Finally, comment will be provided regarding the considerable controversy stimulated by the memorial's imagery on its unveiling in October 1925.