Mass production

The prize-winning designs were exhibited for a time during the spring and early summer of 1918 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The large scale production of the plaques was delayed by a whole series of problems relating to the refinement and unsuccessful modification of Carter Preston's winning model. These difficulties formed the basis for extensive correspondence on points of technical detail between G F Hill and the artist through the months of October to December 1918. It is clear that at times both became exasperated by the conflicting demands of standardisation for mass production and the claims for artistic integrity of the original piece.

Production of the plaques began in December 1918 but difficulties continued to beset the project. A disused laundry in Acton (West London), grandly called 'The Memorial Plaque Factory' was the first centre of production. It was managed by an eccentric American engineer and entrepreneur, named Manning Pike, and staffed principally by women. Hill had been impressed by Pike's solution to the problem of incorporating the names of the deceased on the plaque in such a manner as to harmonise with Carter Preston's chosen script. Despite his technical expertise Pike's monopoly was later brusquely terminated by the War Office and work transferred to Woolwich Arsenal and, subsequently, other former munition factories. After the relative excitement of the competition the whole process of mass production was a slow and 'weary business'. At Woolwich the project foundered and Manning Pike was recalled to save the situation. The work was completed but not without the decline in standards of output which Hill had predicted:

Hill originally postulated a total number of '800,000' plaques to be produced; later estimates have put the total figure at some 1,150,000 specimens. The plaques issued commemorated those men and women who died between 4 August 1914 and 10 January 1920, for Home Establishments, Western Europe and the Dominions. The final date for other theatres of war (including Russia) or for those who died subsequently from attributable causes was 30 April 1920.

Plaque named to Nurse Winifred Coates who died of illness in hospital in London on 8 February 1916, aged 26