Thiepval Memorial

The Thiepval Memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, built between 1928 and 1932 and unveiled on 1 August 1932 by the Prince of Wales in the presence of the French President, Albert Lebrun. Depending on the source, the brick arch rises some 43 to 45 m. Its piers bear more than 72,000 names of British and South African soldiers who went missing in the battles of the Somme between July 1915 and early 1918; the exact figure is given as 72,246 or 72,337, depending on the passage. The Anglo-French cemetery at the foot of the memorial holds 300 British and 300 French graves, and the memorial is also regarded as an Anglo-French monument to the 1916 offensive. The memorial stands about 7.5 km north-east of Albert.

The visitor centre opened in 2004 and explains the battle. Allow one to two hours. The exhibition also covers the work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and that of Edwin Lutyens; a bookshop stocks English-language books on the First World War. The Ulster Tower, an Irish memorial with its own visitor facilities, stands nearby.