In 1932 the British government decided to build the great Somme memorial. This imposing monument, built of brick and stone, work of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, 45 metres high and visible for many miles around, commemorates the 72,085 British and South African men who fell between July 1915 and March 1918 and who have no known grave. Their names are engraved on the 16 pillars that form the base of the structure. This great triumphal arch bears an inscription : "Aux armées françaises et britanniques, l'Empire britannique reconnaissant" (To the French and British armies, from the grateful British Empire).