Who's Who - Sir Reginald Blomfield
Sir Reginald Blomfield
(1856-1942) was an architect, garden designer and author.
The son of an English bishop Blomfield, something of a bombastic man, once declared that "horticulture stands to garden design much as building does to architecture". He was also unafraid to come out strongly against the designs of his contemporaries, including Ruskin and Morris (he particularly despised the design of Battersea Park in London).
He published, in 1892, The Formal Garden in England and, in 1934, an attack upon modern architecture, Modernismus among other works.
Fabian Ware, instigator of the Imperial (later Commonwealth) War Graves Commission successfully persuaded Blomfield to contribute to the commemorative design of cemeteries constructed in honour of the Commonwealth war dead.
To this end Blomfield designed many of the crosses of sacrifice seen in CWGC cemeteries, including Tyne Cot; he was also the architect of the Menin Gate in Ypres which was unveiled in 1927.
Duck-Boards comprised slatted wooden planking used for flooring trenches or muddy ground.
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