St Bride’s to receive companion memorial as first UK national monument to fallen journalists is unveiled

A new national memorial honouring journalists and media workers killed while reporting from conflict zones has been unveiled in London. The winning design, revealed at Bloomberg’s European headquarters, will be installed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire next year.

A smaller version of the work will be placed within St Bride’s – the Journalists’ Church – as a permanent focus for remembrance, reflecting our long-standing ministry to journalism.

Honouring a calling marked by courage

The initiative, led by the charity On the Record, comes at a time when the dangers facing journalists remain acute.

The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded 129 journalists and media workers killed in 2025 alone. Since 2000, at least 17 UK journalists have died while reporting from conflict zones.

Their stories are woven into the life of St Bride’s. Our Journalists’ Altar, annual Journalists’ Commemorative Service and pastoral support for the media community reflect our commitment to honouring those who bring truth to light, often at great personal cost.

Selecting a memorial worthy of the task

More than 100 sculptors submitted proposals through the Royal Society of Sculptors, each exploring how to express the courage and vocation of journalism in conflict.

A panel representing the Arboretum, the Royal Society of Sculptors, St Bride’s and senior journalists shortlisted eight exceptional designs: a helix of war correspondents’ words; a stone evocation of St Bride’s own “silenced bells”, destroyed in the Blitz; stark corten-steel banners carved with Truth & Testimony; a fractured wall revealing the contrast between domestic safety and frontline danger; and a bronze flak jacket bearing the word PRESS.

The winning design, End of Copy / Words of Light by Wolfgang Buttress, is a circle of aluminium columns arranged in a Fibonacci spiral — a quiet, contemplative structure that honours journalism as an act of service.

Embedded within it are the symbols “30”, the traditional telegraph code for end of copy, and the modern hashtag, linking past and present forms of communication.

The memorial will sit within a glade at the National Memorial Arboretum, its columns catching and releasing the changing light.

A smaller version – possibly a lantern – will be created for St Bride’s, echoing the interplay of darkness and illumination that lies at the heart of journalism itself.

Further details about the project can be found at https://ontherecordmemorial.co.uk 

Panel judge and journalist Sarah Sands reflects on the commission https://www.thetimes.com/culture/art/article/our-quest-to-find-a-fitting-memorial-for-the-uk-journalists-killed-at-war-xmnts9sgs 

The Times View – It’s right to recognise journalists who died in pursuit of truth https://www.thetimes.com/comment/the-times-view/article/its-right-to-recognise-journalists-who-died-in-pursuit-of-truth-ld5z9sg3s

Written by Neil Bellingham, Digital Communications, St Bride’s Church