IPW excursion

I learnt a lot during the excursion, we went to places that I have never been to. I have heard of the places before, but I have not actually been to the places before. So I was pretty excited when I heard that we were going to places such as the cenotaph and the Lim Bo Seng memorial. My group was doing the project on the cenotaph. I had never been to the cenotaph, and I did not know what it looked like then. So the project and the excursion allowed me to learn about the places and it's importance. I liked going to the Raffles landing site the best. While we were there we could see the famous Sir Stamford Raffles statue. To be honest, I have not been there before. My group's place was not pretty difficult. It was a war memorial on the people who died during world war one and wolrd war two.

History
The Cenotaph was erected as a memorial in honour of the 124 Singapore men who died in action during World War I (1914-1918). Recognition for those who died during World War II (1939-1945) were later added on the reverse side.It was designed by Architect Denis Santry of Messrs Swan & McLaren and was modelled after the Sir Edwin Lutyens Whitehall Cenotaph of 1920. The foundation stone was laid on 15 November 1920 by His Excellency the then-Governor of the Straits Settlements, Sir Lawrence Nunns Guillemard, K.C.B., in the presence of M. Georges Clemenceau, Premier of France and Minister of War as well as the General Officer commanding the troops, Major-General Sir D.H. Ridout.It was unveiled on 31 March 1922 in a solemn ceremony by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (later Duke of Windsor and King Edward VIII) during his tour of Malaya, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Description
The Cenotaph is a made of local granite and is nearly sixty feet high. Bronze tablets on both sides of the Cenotaph bears the names of the men from the Straits Settlement who perished in the war. Five steps lead up to the monument bearing the dates 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917 and 1918, marking the war years of World War I. Crowning the structure is a sarcophagus with a bronze lion beneath a bronze medallion consisting of a laurel wreath of victory enclosing a crown. It symbolises the crown to which these men had rallied and is also a reflection of the Crown Colony. Lower down is the inscription "The Glorious Dead" and below the inscription are the dates 1914-1918. On the reverse side, though no names are listed to commemorate the World War II heroes, the stark phrase "They died so we might live" is inscribed in the four main languages: English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. There are 14 pylons on both sides of the stone structure bearing the names of famous battles with each battle surmounted by a laurel wreath. Overall it is a simple granite structure wrought with just a hammer and a chisel.

And you can see the picture of the cenotaph in my blog. I hoped everyone had learnt a lot of new things. The whole project was fun adn enjoyable.