 The British and French military officers present at the dedication ceremony included Ferdinand Foch, Maxime Weygand, George Milne and William Pulteney Pulteney.The ceremony also commemorated the contributions of Joseph Joffre, John French, and Michel-Joseph Maunoury, the commanders of the armies who had fought in the area.French in particular was the first commander of the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. Maunoury and French had died in 1923 and 1925, while Foch would die in 1929 and Joffre in 1931.