The Elveden Memorial

I've always been keen to learn about the Elveden Memorial. We've passed it by many times on various trips o Norfolk. It's right beside the A11, (recently made a dual carriageway `this stretch) so it was never easy to stop and look at it.














On our recent trip to Norwich, we learned more about it, when we stopped a the Elveden Estate for lunch.

‘As a tribute to the imperishable memory of the men of Elveden, Eriswell and Icklingham, a magnificent Corinthian column has been erected on Earl Iveagh’s estate at a point where the three parishes meet. A new landmark has thus been set up in West Suffolk, and the memorial is the most imposing in the Eastern Counties...Such an arresting spectacle is it, that few who journey along the road near which it stands will pass by without pausing for a time to behold the beauty and magnificence of the monument' It also notes that the funerary urn is based on the 1791 Coade stone Monument to Timothy Brett in the grounds of Mount Edgcumbe, Plymouth, now a country park. Columns on this scale are not usual in World War I memorials and suggest competition with the Nelson and Leicester monuments. Tact suggested to the Earl of Iveagh and his architect, who had inherited the Elveden practice from his father, that their column should be shorter than Nelson’s (44 metres), but just taller than the Earl of Leicester’s (38 metres).

Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Baron and Earl of Iveagh, purchased the Elveden Estate in 1894. Born in
Clontarf, Dublin, Guiness was the third son of Sir Benjamin Guinness, 1st Baronet, and younger brother of Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun. Educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating with BA in 1870, he served as Sheriff of Dublin in 1876, and nine years later became the city's High Sheriff  That same year, he was created a baronet, County Dublin, for helping with the visit of the then Prince of Wales to Ireland.

In 1873, Iveagh married his third cousin Adelaide Guinness, nicknamed "Dodo" (1844–1916). She was descended from the banking line of Guinnesses, and was the daughter of Richard S. Guinness (1797–1857), barrister and MP,and his wife Katherine (1808–81), a daughter of Sir Charles Jenkinson

In 1891, Guinness was created Baron Iveagh, of Iveagh County Down. He was appointed a Knight of St Patrick in 1895, and ten years later was advanced in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Elected to the Royal Society in 1906, he was two years later elected nineteenth Chancellor of Dublin University> in 1908–27, he served as a vice-president of the Royal Dublin SocietyViscount Elveden, of Elveden in the CountySuffolk

The estate was used as a tank training ground in WWI .

The Hall was used during theSecond World War as a headquarters for the> USAAF, during which time the staff quarters were struck and destroyed by a bomb. By the 1980s, the Guinness family were living elsewhere on the estate, and the Hall only occupied by caretakers. Its entire contents, including elaborate items owned by the Maharajah, were auctioned at Christie's 



The Elveden Estate continues to be one of the country's largest farms.

 Owners of Elveden Hall and its estate since 1894 have been:

Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh (1894–1927)

Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh (1927–1967)

Arthur Francis Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (1967–1992)

Arthur Edward Rory Guinness, 4th Earl of Iveagh (since 1992)

The Heir Apparent is the present holder's son Arthur Benjamin Geoffrey Guinness, Viscount Elveden (b. 2003) (wikipedia)