The new war memorial Victoria Embankment

[letsavagoo 961]

You may have heard that Nottingham Council are commissioning a new memorial to honour in one place Nottinghamshires War dead. I believe it will be on Trent Embankment. Currently names are dotted all over the county. There have been appeals on the local BBC to get in touch to make sure your relatives name is on their list to ensure they will be included. Does anyone know where you get in touch. I've looked on line and see info about it in general but not specific contact detail.

[TBI 2,351]

That's really good news, letsavagoo. Maybe the Council will also think about making it easier for folk to actually spend time at the memorial, without having to muck about on a smartphone to park on the Embankment. 

 

Since the new parking rules, the Embankment seems to be barely used much of the time.

[Commo 1,292]

Details of the proposed memorial can be found online at nottinghamshire.gov.uk/nottsremembers and scroll down to the item Great War Memorial. We have donated towards this in remembrance of my grandfather and great uncle. The names of all The Fallen listed can be viewed at nottinghamshire.gov.uk/rollofhonour

[LizzieM 9,507]

My family were very fortunate, no loss of family members in the two World Wars, except my maternal grandmother’s first husband, Tom Lloyd, father of my Mum’s half-sister.  My grandmother was left widowed with one child then was re-married to my grandfather and they produced 4 children, my Mum being one of them.  I know nothing at all about Tom Lloyd.

[FLY2 10,108]

You're extremely lucky Lizzie. One of my interests is strolling around village churchyards and war memorials. In some villages, I've seen memorials listing as many as six victims all with the same surname. Devastating.

[Oztalgian 3,270]

 

33 minutes ago, FLY2 said:

One of my interests is strolling around village churchyards and war memorials. In some villages, I've seen memorials listing as many as six victims all with the same surname.

I know what you mean FLY, I too do that on my travels around Australia. Every small town throughout Australia has its war memorial and on them there are many members of the same family that paid the ultimate sacrifice.

The small town of Maroon in SE Queensland suffered more than most during WW1 where 40% of the men that enlisted did not return. Of the 35 families that lived in the area 42 men enlisted 17 were killed, five of eight grandsons from one family did not survive.

At the Australian War Memorial in Canberra there is a Hall of Memory where bronze plaques record the names only, no rank or honours, of the 102,000 plus Australian service personnel who have lost their lives in conflicts.

At the end of each day the Last Post is played and the story of one of the names is told. I defy anyone not to be moved by this simple ceremony.

I think the concept of a Nottinghamshire memorial is a splendid idea and well done to all involved.

[FLY2 10,108]

According to Radio Nottm, the new one on the embankment was opened today.

[FLY2 10,108]

Well I visited it this morning, and was somewhat disappointed, as despite only being open a couple of weeks, it's already looking decidedly tatty. Some of the grey plaques are a different shade, which gives the impression that replacements have already been made, and as they're set at an angle and not vertical have already got stains and bird pooh on them. All in all, quite disappointing.

[letsavagoo 961]

Has anyone else visited the new memorial to the WW1 dead in the memorial gardens at Trent embankment. I was in the area the other day so called in as my Grandfather is remembered on it. I was rather disappointed. The whole garden is quite scruffy and although there were a number of people working there, it seemed very neglected and not at all pleasant. As for the memorial itself within the garden. It's round some 40 or 50 feet across with a gap in the encirclement for access with the names engraved on metal plaques sloping up from the centre to outer edge so the outside of the circle is a is banked which was heavily overgrown with weeds and looked awful. Very disappointed. 

https://www.itv.com/news/central/2019-06-28/the-duke-of-kent-unveils-great-war-memorial-in-nottinghamshire/

[FLY2 10,108]

There's already a topic mentioning this, and I was there a few days after opening, and it looked an eyesore even then. I blame the design, and the angle of the whole thing. It's very susceptible to bird droppings, the things are already badly stained. Very disappointing indeed.

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

1 hour ago, FLY2 said:

There's already a topic mentioning this, 

 

Both topics now merged into here.

[letsavagoo 961]

4 hours ago, Cliff Ton said:

 

Both topics now merged into here.

I did a search before I posted this and nothing came up. Couldn't find it.

[katyjay 5,090]

Don't worry letsavagoo, it happens to the best of us. Seems no matter what words you put in the search box, nowt comes up. Apparently you have to hold your mouth just so!

[mercurydancer 1,104]

I do battlefield tours as a hobby, so I am well used to Ypres (or Ieper) and the last post there is a very deeply emotional thing. I usually stand to attention and lean slightly forward so the tears do not land on my jacket. 

[FLY2 10,108]

When I was at the Menin Gate a few years ago. Harry  Patch, one of the last three  WW1 Tommies was there. Sadly, he died a couple years ago.

[mercurydancer 1,104]

Fly, I knew him a little. Grumpy old bogger, but funny too. 

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

I envy you, M.D.. I thoroughly enjoyed the tv programmes about Mr Patch and also his autobiography. I have a great respect for the chap. His life was long and far from easy, WW1 notwithstanding. Also much enjoyed the story of Arthur Halestrap who, likewise, didn't have an easy life but kept his sense of humour. Wonderful chap...and a cat person, like myself!

[mercurydancer 1,104]

Jill

 

Harry was a character all right. I first met him in about 2004, at Passchendaele. Saw him would be more precise, as the film crew were there. I did get to speak with him in a bar near the Menin Gate, and he was scrounging drinks from everyone. Once a soldier always a soldier!. 

 

The bar was refurbished a few years later, but in the same bar, two years ago, I did a special battlefield tour for a friend whose great grandfather died not far from ypres, so I took her there. As it happened, it was 9 May, Russian national day, so I took my little Russian 9 Mai flags with me and waved them at the Menin Gate. The brass band saw me, and did something I will always recall. After the ceremony we went to that bar. The brass band went to the same bar, as they always do. They saw me and my flags and then went outside and started to play the Russian national anthem. I got on my hind legs and started belting out the anthem too rossiya – svyashchennaya nasha derzhavya, rossiya lyubimaya nasha stranya!!!!!! Strangely two other lads stood up, a little embarrassed and started to sing along! I dont know much more than those two lines but we gave it all we had! The clapping and laughing was wonderful, and the conversations were interesting. A wonderful evening. 

[Jill Sparrow 10,304]

That must have been the occasion when Harry was filming The Last Tommy documentary. At the end, he did something he vowed he would never do. He went back to Pilkem where his Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry Lewis gun crew comrades were killed by a shell. I thought he was very brave indeed to do that.

 

As I have mentioned before, my maternal grandfather witnessed his younger brother blown to bits by a shell and gathered up his remains into a sack. He never spoke of it but kept his brother's photo in a frame on the wall, dressed in his KRRC uniform. As with Mr Patch, who for decades never spoke of his experience, my grandfather must have carried that image with him for the rest of his life and blamed himself, as all survivors do, for surviving.

 

All those who participated in The Last Tommy documentary are now gone but they were a breed we are not likely to see again and we owe them much.

[Deepdene Boy 642]

Mercurydancer, I wonder if you know one of my referring colleagues from Northampton, Terry Whenham, as he also conducts WW1 battlefield tours.