Standing tall at 48 feet, the Kitchener Memorial was erected in Birsay, Orkney Islands, to honor the HMS Hampshire. The British cruiser was struck by a mine laid by German U-boat U-75 on 5 June 1916 while on a diplomatic mission to Russia. The sinking resulted in the loss of 737 people on board, including Lord Kitchener.
After the First World War, the people of Orkney raised funds to construct the monument to honor Kitchener and the other crew members who were lost that evening. The tower was officially unveiled on 2 July 1926. An inscription on the tower notes that it was raised in memory of Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum on the corner of his country which he had served so faithfully.
In 2016, exactly 100 years after the sinking, a commemorative wall was unveiled at the base of the tower. This wall is inscribed with the names of all servicemen lost in the disaster. While the memorial was targeted during the 'Topple the Racists' protests in 2020, it was never touched.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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