War memorials in organizational memory: a case study of the Bank of England

ABSTRACT Nation-states are not the only bodies to have invested in memory-building through the construction of war memorials. This article moves the analysis on from nation-states to firms. It undertakes an analysis of war memorials built by the Bank of England. At the close of World War I, the Bank of England was not yet a nationalized company. Yet, it still, like many other organizations, engaged in this process of memorialization. We show that businesses closely followed the habits of nation-states when it came to commemorating war. The building of monuments and the ceremonies, which took place around them, assigned values to the imagined communities, groups and nations. These events continue to the present day.