Remembering Derek Lutyens

Today, 8 May, marks 100 years since Derek Lutyens - the nephew of the Commission’s architect Sir Edwin Lutyens - was killed in a plane crash at the age of 23.

Lieutenant L F D Lutyens, known as Derek Lutyens, was transferred from the Royal Fusiliers to the Royal Flying Corps in mid-1916. He died when serving at Farnborough with the Experimental Squadron of the Royal Air Force. It is believed the aircraft in which he died was being flown for pressure tests on its tail plane, and it was the failure of the tail plane that caused the crash.

He is buried in Thursley (St. Michael) Churchyard in Surrey, UK, where a private memorial designed by his uncle Edwin Lutyens marks his grave.

Derek was one of five nephews Edwin lost during the First World War. Captain Charles Graeme Lutyens died on 9 August 1915 and is buried in New Zealand No.2 Outpost Cemetery, Lieutenant Charles John Lionel Lutyens died on 3 October 1917 and is buried in Spoilbank Cemetery, Lieutenant Cyril Arthur George Lutyens died on 9 October 1917 and is commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, and Major Lionel Gallwey Lutyens died on 9 January 1918 and is buried in Canada Farm Cemetery.

Edwin was one of the Commission’s three principal architects commissioned to design many of the cemeteries and memorials of the First World War. Edwin designed the Stone of Remembrance which can be found in all Commission cemeteries of 1,000 burials or more. Some of the Commission cemeteries and memorials he designed include Thiepval Memorial in France, Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery in France, and Tower Hill Memorial in the UK.