28/04/2008 07:49:00
An international competition to create a significant new war memorial in central Edinburgh was launched this weekend.
According to the Scotsman, the memorial will be erected in West Princes Street Gardens and will commemorate people from Edinburgh who have been killed in battle.
The newspaper states that officials at Edinburgh council have looked to war memorials across the globe for inspiration, including those in Washington, Paris, Amsterdam and Australia.
Ultimately, a worldwide competition to design the war memorial in the Scottish Capital was settled upon. It is hoped that the planned structure will be the country's equivalent of England's Armed Forces Memorial, which was unveiled in Staffordshire last year.
Chief executive of Edinburgh City Council, Tom Aitchison, told the Scotsman: "Any move to create a new memorial is sensitive and will need to be the subject of further consultation with representatives of veterans organisations and families."
Currently, Edinburgh's most famous war memorial is perhaps the Scottish National War Memorial at Edinburgh Castle.
Last week, Prince Charles unveiled a set of memorial gates for the Queen Mother at Glamis Castle in Angus.
The castle, which dates back to the fourteenth century, was also used as a military hospital during World War One, during which time the Queen Mother helped to care for injured soldiers recovering there.