War Memorialised: How the UK remembers its wars and its dead

Hamourtziadou, Lily (2026) War Memorialised: How the UK remembers its wars and its dead. In: The Role of Memory in War Politics and Post-Conflict Reconciliation: Historical Memory in Crisis. Routledge. ISBN 9781041093398

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Abstract

War memorials serve as reminders of heroism, sacrifice and an official/acceptable national past. In the case of the UK, militarism and military romanticism, as well as the existence of an imperialist past (and present), determine how memories of war and its dead are made. The chapter explores the role of national myths and state-sponsored patriotic narratives in historical framing: in how the nation’s virtues, triumphs and past moral victories are repeated now. A sanitised national history provides a usable, exclusive heroism, and at the same time establishes which casualties are remembered or memorialised, and which are not. The author uses the research, findings and database of the NGO Iraq Body Count.

Item Type:	Book Section
Dates:	Date Event 9 March 2026 Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Memorials, militarism, imperialism, war, casualties, national myths, historical framing
Subjects:	CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-02 - sociology
Divisions:	Law and Social Sciences > Criminology and Sociology > Sociology
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	28 Jul 2026 09:45
Last Modified:	28 Jul 2026 09:45
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/17129

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