His friendship with two prominent families in the area, the Horners and the Asquiths, led to a series of commissions; among his other works in the village are memorials to two sons—one from each family—killed in the war.

Lutyens toured the village with local dignitaries in search of a suitable site for the war memorial, after which he was prompted to remark "all their young men were killed".

He was a friend of two prominent local families, the Horners and the Asquiths, through his collaborations with Gertrude Jekyll on country houses and gardens early in his career.

Lutyens first visited Mells in 1896 at the request of Lady Horner (with whom he became close friends), who commissioned him to rebuild the house, and later for several other works related to the manor.

[9] Mells' war dead were first commemorated by a stone tablet on a wall in St Andrew's Church, designed by the Kensington School of Art and listing the names of 14 villagers.

After discussing various potential locations, including St Andrew's churchyard, they decided that the memorial should be on the road in a prominent position where it would be obvious to passers-by.

[2] Lutyens was moved by the villagers' personal loss and wrote in a letter to his wife, Emily: "My weekend was a spring day, fun and tears.

[2][3][13] The memorial takes the form of a Tuscan column of Purbeck Marble construction, on which stands a statue of Saint George slaying a dragon.

Lady Horner first hoped to have an original sculpture and approached several artists but all quotes she received would have exceeded the village's budget, so she instead commissioned a copy of a statue in the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

The column stands on a tall, narrow pedestal in Portland stone that bears the inscription: WE DIED IN A STRANGE LAND FACING THE DARK CLOUD OF WAR AND THIS STONE IS RAISED TO US IN THE HOME OF OUR DELIGHT; MCMXIV & MCMXIX, a verse suggested by Robert Bridges, the poet laureate, in correspondence with Lady Horner.

At the same height are flanking walls of coarsed, squared rubble from the nearby Doulting Stone Quarry, set back at the ends and topped with a yew hedge.

[2][18][19] General Asquith was later instrumental in the creation of Lutyens' Royal Naval Division War Memorial outside the Admiralty building in London.