Origins – Part 2

The Small Markers

In early 1927, Gaston Deblaize designed his first memorial marker, a ceramic piece of modest dimensions (13x5x3.5 cm).  

Deblaize drew inspiration from the mileage stones he and his comrades encountered while marching along the roads, and against which they sometimes rested. He added a French Adrian-style helmet on top and inside he placed soil collected from the battlefield at Verdun.  The “Sacred Soil Marker” was born.

DeBlaize produced a series of the same model, each containing soil from a dozen battlefields: the Aisne, Alsace, the Argonne, Artois, Champagne, French Flanders, Lorraine, the Marne, the Somme, Belgium, the Yser, and Verdun. 

The markers were then sold “In Memory of the Dead of the Great War – To the Mutilated – To the Combatants”  

Deblaize donated the copyright of his creation to the union of the wounded of the face and head, commonly known as the Gueules Cassées, or “Broken Faces.” 

Proceeds from the sales of the markers benefited soldiers needing facial reconstruction surgeries

The box containing each memorial stone was accompanied by a certificate from the Broken Faces and was sealed with the mark of the Association.

On July 27, 1927, Gaston Deblaize and Albert Jugon, Secretary General of the Broken Faces, presented French President Gaston Doumergue with a bronze version of the marker, containing soil from the legendary Trench of Bayonets near Verdun.