UK bid to recognise NZ war hero

[Kyt]

Businessman wants recognition for NZ war hero | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz

A battle is under way in London to win recognition for one of New Zealand's greatest war heroes.

Sir Keith Park led a key group of fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain, helping to halt the Nazi invasion.

He died in 1975 but now there is a move to honour his memory in England.

London is a city of statues but nowhere will you find one of the New Zealander who was crucial in defending south-eastern England during the Battle of Britain.

Businessman Terry Smith is shocked by the lack of recognition for a man "who made an enormous contribution".

Sir Keith commanded the RAF's 11 group during the summer of 1940 and his Hurricanes and Spitfires fought fierce battles with the German Luftwaffe.

At the RAF Museum in London, Park is regarded as a tactical genius.

"The Battle of Britain was the most important action ever fought by the Royal Air Force and is likely to be its most important action in the whole of its history," spokesman David Keen says.

"If you could say there was one man who won the Battle of Britain for Britain, that man was Sir Keith Park."

But after the battle Park fell out with RAF top brass.

"He lost his command, he was sent out to do training and he wasn't even mentioned in the official history which was written by the RAF a year later," Smith says.

Trafalgar Square is home to many of Britain's war heroes and Smith is keen to add a nine foot statue of Sir Keith wearing his flying suit and helmet.

He is prepared to pay $300,000 for the statue and says the project is his passion.

"I can only believe it's the type of passion he must have had to achieve what he did. I think we should try to match that for him," says Smith.

[Antipodean Andy]

Not forgetting his sterling service in Malta or the CBI either. An inspirational leader.

On top of that, he was an ace in WWI!

Explore MOTAT, Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology

[spidge]

When you fell out with the RAF or Churchill, it was usually with a big thud!

[Kyt]

FT.com / Home UK / UK - At Last, A Place For An Unsung War Hero In Trafalgar Square

Anniversaries are important. I am usually good at remembering anniversaries, such as the first time I met anyone significant, the first time I did anything special (shot my first grouse, for example), the first time I got married (all right, I've only got married once, but you never know), the birthdays of my children, and the anniversary of the day that I led the management buyout of our company. We make a big fuss of anniversaries in our company; every year we present staff members with flowers (or, in the case of our very few boys, alcohol) on the anniversary of the day that they joined, and on all birthdays we have cake and read out a specially commissioned poem. With more than 20 people in the company, it is just as well that we have a few budding Tennysons or the poet laureate duties might prove rather a burden.

This weekend is the first anniversary of the only column I have ever written that has started a major campaign. On September 15 2007, I noticed that it was Battle of Britain day and offered my opinion that London was the poorer for not honouring the man who many believe did more to win the battle than anyone else. Sir Keith Park has many memorials to him in his home country of New Zealand, but for his inspired labours in the control room at RAF Uxbridge he was never given a permanent memorial in London. (I had not known that the control room was in Uxbridge, but I'm not surprised. Can any of you find Uxbridge on a map? Presumably they trusted in 1940 that neither could Hitler.)

After I wrote that column, a wealthy London-based businessman wrote to the FT offering to fund a statue to Sir Keith and started a campaign to have it placed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. This produced an outpouring of letters and e-mails to me, him and the paper from all over the world. Every party in the New Zealand parliament has given its support, as has the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the MP for Westminster, Mark Field, and RAF boss Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy. All these, together with the veterans' organisations and the Battle of Britain Historical Society, have helped the campaign (The Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign).

This weekend, at the RAF Museum in Hendon, many people involved with the campaign meet to celebrate its success so far, and see a mock-up of the famous Uxbridge control room. On Saturday at 2pm, the businessman who launched the campaign with that letter to the FT will set out why Sir Keith should be remembered as one of Britain's greatest war heroes. Anyone can go along, and, if you feel like nipping over later, I can assure you that Hendon is much easier to find than Uxbridge.

The event is being supported by KEA, an organisation that unites New Zealanders living outside New Zealand (Kea New Zealand). Why do so many work overseas? After all, they have the most beautiful country in the world. Mind you, we should be grateful that New Zealanders do leave to work elsewhere - we might all be speaking German here if they didn't.

Which is why it is so pleasing that, a year on from my column, the Sir Keith Park Campaign has achieved what many said was impossible. Subject to planning approval by Westminster City Council, a statue of Sir Keith will be on the fourth plinth for six months from late autumn 2009. Thereafter, a permanent site will be found in a prestigious location nearby, the hope being that this will be in Waterloo Place. Seven sculptors are submitting designs and this month a committee will choose a winner.

September 15 2010 will be the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and this may be the last major anniversary where veterans of the battle still survive in any number. How nice, then, that the anniversary is expected to be marked by the dedication of the permanent statue. Thank you, everyone.

[Kyt]

FT.com / Home UK / UK - At Last, A Place For An Unsung War Hero In Trafalgar Square

Anniversaries are important. I am usually good at remembering anniversaries, such as the first time I met anyone significant, the first time I did anything special (shot my first grouse, for example), the first time I got married (all right, I've only got married once, but you never know), the birthdays of my children, and the anniversary of the day that I led the management buyout of our company. We make a big fuss of anniversaries in our company; every year we present staff members with flowers (or, in the case of our very few boys, alcohol) on the anniversary of the day that they joined, and on all birthdays we have cake and read out a specially commissioned poem. With more than 20 people in the company, it is just as well that we have a few budding Tennysons or the poet laureate duties might prove rather a burden.

This weekend is the first anniversary of the only column I have ever written that has started a major campaign. On September 15 2007, I noticed that it was Battle of Britain day and offered my opinion that London was the poorer for not honouring the man who many believe did more to win the battle than anyone else. Sir Keith Park has many memorials to him in his home country of New Zealand, but for his inspired labours in the control room at RAF Uxbridge he was never given a permanent memorial in London. (I had not known that the control room was in Uxbridge, but I'm not surprised. Can any of you find Uxbridge on a map? Presumably they trusted in 1940 that neither could Hitler.)

After I wrote that column, a wealthy London-based businessman wrote to the FT offering to fund a statue to Sir Keith and started a campaign to have it placed on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. This produced an outpouring of letters and e-mails to me, him and the paper from all over the world. Every party in the New Zealand parliament has given its support, as has the new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, the MP for Westminster, Mark Field, and RAF boss Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy. All these, together with the veterans' organisations and the Battle of Britain Historical Society, have helped the campaign (The Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign).

This weekend, at the RAF Museum in Hendon, many people involved with the campaign meet to celebrate its success so far, and see a mock-up of the famous Uxbridge control room. On Saturday at 2pm, the businessman who launched the campaign with that letter to the FT will set out why Sir Keith should be remembered as one of Britain's greatest war heroes. Anyone can go along, and, if you feel like nipping over later, I can assure you that Hendon is much easier to find than Uxbridge.

The event is being supported by KEA, an organisation that unites New Zealanders living outside New Zealand (Kea New Zealand). Why do so many work overseas? After all, they have the most beautiful country in the world. Mind you, we should be grateful that New Zealanders do leave to work elsewhere - we might all be speaking German here if they didn't.

Which is why it is so pleasing that, a year on from my column, the Sir Keith Park Campaign has achieved what many said was impossible. Subject to planning approval by Westminster City Council, a statue of Sir Keith will be on the fourth plinth for six months from late autumn 2009. Thereafter, a permanent site will be found in a prestigious location nearby, the hope being that this will be in Waterloo Place. Seven sculptors are submitting designs and this month a committee will choose a winner.

September 15 2010 will be the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and this may be the last major anniversary where veterans of the battle still survive in any number. How nice, then, that the anniversary is expected to be marked by the dedication of the permanent statue. Thank you, everyone.

[Antipodean Andy]

Bloody excellent news.

[spidge]

Great news!