Inns of Court War Memorial
The stone obelisk was erected c.1920, close to the temporary training camp of the corps on Berkhamsted Common which operated from 1914 to 1919.
[3] The Inns of Court OTC expanded rapidly in August and September 1914, as thousands volunteered for military service following the outbreak of the First World War, and the corps quickly outgrew its peacetime premises in London.
A training camp opened in tents on Berkhamsted Common, in the west of Hertfordshire in September 1914 and remained in operation until June 1919, hosting around 2,000 officer cadets.
As part of their training, the men dug around 13 miles (21 km) of trenches across Berkhamsted Common, evidence of which remains visible 100 years later.
WHO IN THIS NEIGHBOUR / HOOD TRAINED OVER TWELVE / THOUSAND MEN TO SERVE / AS COMMISSIONED OFFICERS / IN THE GREAT WAR 1914–1918 / AND IN AFFECTIONATE / REMEMBRANCE OF THE TWO / THOUSAND WHO GAVE THEIR / LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY / THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED / BY MEMBERS & FRIENDS OF / THE CORPSThis is followed by the Latin motto of the corps: SALUS POPULI SUPREMA LEX (the safety of the people is the supreme law)A later inscription on the base of the pedestal commemorates Lieutenant Colonel Francis Errington (1854–1942), who commanded the Inns of Court OTC from 1913 to 1916 and who published a history of the corps in 1922:
