Battle of Britain Monument, London

Battle of Britain Monument

A section of the Battle of Britain Monument
Location	Victoria Embankment, London, United Kingdom
Designer	Paul Day
Type	Sculpture
Material	Bronze, granite
Width	25 m (82 ft 0 in)
Opening date	18 September 2005 (2005-09-18)
Dedicated to	Pilots lost in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War

The Battle of Britain Monument in London is a sculpture on the Victoria Embankment, overlooking the River Thames, which commemorates the British military personnel who took part in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War.^[1]

It was unveiled on 18 September 2005, the 65th anniversary of the Battle, by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in the presence of many of the surviving airmen known collectively as "The Few", following the Royal Air Force Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication on Battle of Britain Sunday.^[2] This service is an annual event, the first of which took place in 1943 at St Paul's Cathedral and since has taken place in Westminster Abbey.

The monument was conceived by Bill Bond, founder of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, who was later awarded an MBE for his services to heritage. He was solely responsible for negotiating with the City of Westminster to secure the site of the monument, as well as appointing Donald Insall Associates as architects. He also formed the fundraising committee after raising over £250,000 through an appeal. The budget was £1.74 million which was funded in the main by private donations. Bill Bond appointed Lord Tebbit as chairman of the fundraising committee.

The monument utilises a panelled granite structure 25 m (82 ft) long which was originally designed as a smoke outlet for underground trains when they were powered by steam engines. A walkway was cut obliquely through the middle of the structure, and is lined with panels of high relief sculpture in bronze depicting scenes from the Battle of Britain. The centrepiece is an approximately life sized sculpture of airmen scrambling for their aircraft during the battle. The outside of the monument is lined with bronze plaques listing 2,936 airmen and ground crew from 14 countries who took part in the battle on the Allied side.^[3]

The sculptor of the monument is Paul Day.^[4] The statue was cast by Morris Singer, which is the oldest established fine art foundry in the world and has cast many prominent statues and sculptures in London and around the world, including the lions and fountains in Trafalgar Square.

See also

• Air Forces Memorial

External links

• Official site
• The National Memorial to the Few at Capel-le-Ferne (Official The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust)
• BBC coverage of the unveiling of the monument, including video
• Article by Plt Off Bottomley about the unveiling of the Monument in the Spirit of the Air publication by the RAF – page 4

References

Public art and memorials in London
Statues	Monarchs Richard I Charles I Charles II James II Anne St Paul's Westminster George III George IV George V George VI Others Alanbrooke Becket Bolívar Brunel Burns Cambridge Canning Chaplin Churchill Clive Cook Cromwell Derby Devonshire Disraeli Frere Freud Gagarin Gandhi Greathead Haig Havelock Holmes Irving Jenner Kitchener Lawson Lincoln Lloyd George Mandela Moore Montgomery Mountbatten Myddelton Napier Newman Orwell Outram Palmerston Peel Raikes Reynolds Roberts San Martín Shakespeare Slim Smuts Trajan Wallenberg Washington Wellington City Hyde Park Corner Wesley St Paul's Shoreditch Westminster White Winehouse Wolseley
Memorials	7 July Memorial Albert Memorial Queen Alexandra Memorial Anti-Air War Memorial Bali Bombings Memorial Bazalgette Memorial Bolan's Rock Shrine Breathing Bromhead Memorial Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial Edith Cavell Memorial Cheylesmore Memorial Agatha Christie Memorial Donne Memorial Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross (Charing Cross) Faraday Memorial George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial Golden Boy of Pye Corner Grace Gates Memorial to the Great Exhibition Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice Hogg Memorial Holocaust Memorial Kennedy Memorial Kindertransport – The Arrival Lister Memorial The Monument National Firefighters Memorial National Police Memorial Nelson's Column Pankhurst Memorial Queen Elizabeth Gate Suffragette Memorial Victoria Memorial Twelve Responses to Tragedy ("Yalta Memorial") Wellington Arch Wellington Monument Whittington Stone A Conversation with Oscar Wilde Duke of York Column
War memorials	Pre-WWI Animals in War Crimean War Gurkhas (1816–) Marble Arch New Zealand Campaign (1863–64) Royal Marines (1899–) Siege of Cádiz Westminster School WWI WWII Australia Baltic Exchange Battle of Britain Belgium Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red Bromley Canada Cavalry The Cenotaph Chindits Chingford Chipping Barnet Civil Service Rifles Cockfosters Croydon La Délivrance Enfield Town (3 memorials) Finchley Flanders Fields Memorial Garden Fulham Golders Green Great Eastern Railway Great Western Railway Guards Division Hampton Wick Hendon Hornsey Imperial Camel Corps Islington London and North Western Railway London Troops Machine Gun Corps Memorial Gates Merchant Navy Monken Hadley New Barnet New Zealand Paddington Poland Poplar Rainham Royal Air Force RAF Bomber Command Royal Artillery Royal Fusiliers Royal Naval Division Royal Tank Regiment South Africa (Richmond) South Suburban Gas Company Southwark Submarines Women of World War II Wood Green Post-WWII Korean War
Fountains	Buxton Memorial Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Diana Fountain, Bushy Park Diana Fountain, Green Park Fawcett Memorial The Horses of Helios Guilford Place Matilda Fountain Revolving Torsion Roehampton St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene Shaftesbury Memorial ("Eros") Lady Henry Somerset Memorial Victoria Park
Other works	ArcelorMittal Orbit The Arch 1979–1980 The Barbican Muse Big 4 Boadicea and Her Daughters Brixton murals Bull The Burghers of Calais Christ Child Crystal Palace Dinosaurs The Diver Dolphin lamp standards Dragon boundary marks Elfin Oak Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square Fulcrum The Gold Smelters Homage to Leonardo Icarus Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 Labyrinth London Noses London Pride The Messenger Millennium Dial The Naked Ladies Nike Old Father Time Paternoster Paternoster Vents Physical Energy Platforms Piece Quantum Cloud The Queen's Beasts Rush of Green St Paul's Cross Single Form (Memorial) A Slice of Reality Slipstream South Bank Lion Still Water Sutton Heritage Mosaic Sutton twin towns mural Traffic Light Tree Winged Figure World World Cup Sculpture The Young Lovers Three Standing Figures 1947 Talking Statues Works formerly in London
Blue plaques	Camden Kensington and Chelsea City of Westminster
By borough	City of Westminster Hyde Park Kensington Gardens (partly in Kensington and Chelsea) Paddington St Marylebone Architectural sculpture City of London (not a London borough) Barking and Dagenham Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth
Organisations	Art on the Underground London Mural Preservation Society Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association
Statues in London on Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°30′11″N 0°07′24″W / 51.503017°N 0.123425°W / 51.503017; -0.123425