War Memorials (Local Authorities' Powers) Act 1923

A town war memorial, in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The War Memorials (Local Authorities' Powers) Act 1923 (13 & 14 Geo. V c. 18) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It received Royal Assent on 18 July 1923.

It extended throughout the United Kingdom, and empowered county, borough, district and parish councils ("local authorities") "under certain circumstances to maintain, repair and protect war memorials" within the area for which they were responsible, in addition to the necessary power which had previously already existed, namely to accept such memorials as gifts 'in the public interest'. Expenditure was to be covered by levying a rate which was not to exceed 1⅓ of a penny in the pound for any given financial year (0.5%); parish councils were required to have this rate approved by the county council.^[1]

The 1923 Act in question has been modernised after the Second World War in line with administrative reorganisations, in particular by providing local authorities, after the Second World War, but in the same Act as amended, with the option of themselves dealing with the character of war memorials by the addition of names, whether any particular memorial was as originally accepted by themselves after the First World War as gifts 'in the public interest' or not. This related directly to the decision to include the military graves of the Second World War in the original graves and cemeteries, including monuments, as created and maintained throughout the world in relation to the at the time existing 'British Empire' by the Imperial War Graves Commission as set up in 1917 (the name being now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission).^[2]

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