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Veterans with a model of the Sir Keith Park statue. |
RAF hero statue bid
takes off
A tribute to Battle of Britain pilot Sir Keith Park in Trafalgar Square is one step closer, but still needs more public support, writes Karl McCartney
WESTMINSTER City Council has recently received planning applications for a statue of one of Britain’s most important military leaders, to be placed temporarily on the Fourth Plinth of Trafalgar Square and then at a permanent home in Waterloo Place.
The statue will commemorate a true hero whose exploits were as important to British military history as those of Nelson, Drake or Montgomery, but who has have never been properly recognised here in the city and country he did so much to defend.
His name is Sir Keith Park, and he played a crucial leadership role in winning the Battle of Britain in 1940 at a critical point in the Second World War.
New Zealand-born Park led the RAF’s 11 Group Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. This fighter group was responsible for the aerial defence of London and south-east England. It is impossible to exaggerate the central role Park played in winning the battle and preventing Hitler invading Britain, with all the hideous repercussions that would have had both for this country and for the wider free world.
Park had unequalled skills of co-ordination, strategic and tactical judgment and leadership, and personally controlled the RAF’s tactics, hour by hour. He made great use of Fighter Command’s innovative radar system and the Observer Corps to track German aircraft and scramble fighters to challenge them.
Even the Germans nicknamed Park “The Defender of London”.
Such was his contribution that, in 1947, the Marshal of the RAF, Lord Tedder, said of Park: “If ever any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe it is recognised how much this one man, with his leadership, his calm judgment and his skill, did to save not only this country, but the world.”
Yet the only official memorials to Park in the
UK are two roads and a soon-to-be-restored steam locomotive.
To right this wrong, City businessman Terry Smith, himself a keen military historian and pilot, launched the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign in March 2008. Since then, a growing and diverse coalition of supporters has assembled, whose ranks include old political foes Tony Benn and Lord Tebbit, Battle of Britain veterans, Mayor of London Boris Johnson,
current and former military personnel, the Air Chief Marshal of the RAF Sir Glenn Torpy, over 60 MPs from all parties, the leaders of every political party in New Zealand, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy Peter Jackson, TV presenters Sir Patrick Moore and Dan Snow; actor Edward Fox OBE, the High Commissioners of New Zealand and Malta (Park later masterminded the defence of
Malta), the New Zealand cricket team, and, most importantly of all, thousands of members of the public who have signed an online petition, available at www.sirkeithpark.com.
With this momentum behind it, thecampaign recently submitted planning applications to Westminster City Council, both having the backing of the Mayor of London, for a temporary statue in Trafalgar Square to be erected later this year, and a permanent statue in
Waterloo Place, next to the Athenaeum, in 2010.
This permanent memorial will form the centrepiece of the RAF’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the battle, which is sadly likely to be the last major anniversary which will be attended by large numbers of veterans who fought, and those who supported them, in the Battle of Britain.
Poignantly, the Fourth Plinth is in sight of the New Zealand High Commission and would remind people of the sacrifices made by the Commonwealth nations and others during the Second World War.
Trafalgar Square already has statues of naval and army commanders, but not of any member of the RAF who defended our freedom in 1940. The Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign hopes that Westminster’s councillors make the right decision to ensure that this anomaly is corrected.
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