LONDON MONUMENT – LOOK BACK AT 2006

Click on any photo to view a large version
in a new window - close it to return to this page.

The Monument was unveiled over 15 months ago in September 2005 and since then has enjoyed the attention of what must amount to hundreds of thousands of visitors based on email and verbal reports from interested parties that have monitored the site at various times.

There is of course no record of the current whereabouts of Battle veterans or their families so the fact that visitors to the Monument can email this site has led to the discovery of many relatives of the airmen named on it (many of whom came upon the Monument by accident) and consequent unearthing of stories and photographs which will all be published on the site in the fullness of time.

In March I was contacted by Peter and Jackie Lowe who had been friends of Squadron Leader Lionel H "Buck" Casson (of 616 Squadron in the Battle) and his wife Dorothy since 1978. Lionel died in 2003, an invitation to the monument unveiling was extended to Dorothy but she was unable to attend.

She was determined to see the monument and Peter and Jackie arranged to bring her down to London on the 1st July. I was able to meet them there in fine weather and photograph Dorothy at the plaque bearing her husband’s name.

Dorothy had some extremely interesting stories about her husband which I have regretted not recording properly and was adamant about Lionel’s post-war friendship with Douglas Bader, this contrary to reports of a rift between them due to the possibility of Lionel unwittingly shooting down Bader over France.

Peter Lowe was kind enough to write subsequently:

“Hello Edward, please forgive the delay coming back to thank you for last Saturday but the sentiments are no less sincere in saying a very big thank you to you for your kindness and trouble in coming to meet us and explaining the details of the marvellous monument. We had not told Dorothy until we got on the train that were meeting you so the air of excited anticipation was even greater during the journey !

Your patience and dedication to the project was most evident and we want to congratulate you and your collaborators on the most fitting outcome to your years of planning and fund raising. Dorothy and we are full of memories of the day and of course we were moved to see Lionel's name there along with those of his colleagues. We all have a great deal for which to thank the generation who had to face the onslaught in 1940 and notably among them of course the aircrew who fought in the Battle of Britain. You have done a lasting and proportionate service to the memory of the people and to the circumstances in which they had to find from within themselves a strength and perseverance which most of us younger ones may never have to draw on. The memorial will act as a reminder to those who see it of what had to be done to defend our freedom and way of life and is a proper salute to Lionel and all those like him. With our grateful thanks, Every good wish, Dorothy, Peter and Jackie”

**** ****

The Historical Society’s 10th anniversary boat trip took place on Sunday 14 May, as always a great time was had by all thanks to Mike Britton of Thames Leisure and the staff of the “William B” who could not have been more hospitable.

The veteran guests assemble in front of the Monument (L to R) - Trevor Gray, Jack Toombs (who sadly passed away in December), Albert Gregory, Ken Lee, Paul Farnes, Owen Burns, John Down and Joe Chamberlain.

Pamela Duncan-Ebert overcame injuries received in a road accident to disembark and make her way to the Monument where for the first time she was able to see the name of her wartime fiance, Marian Chelmecki. After escaping from Poland he flew with 17 and 56 Squadrons in the Battle. He came to meet Pamela when his brother Stanislaw was befriended by her parents in Wimbledon. Their plan to marry post-war was hindered by Marian being unable to secure any sort of employment, pilots were definitely not in demand, and he returned to Poland in the hope of earning a living there. The new regime prevented his return and, although they remained in touch, the years went by and his health deteriorated. He was able to make a last visit to Pamela in the UK before his death in 1988.

**** ****

Not surprisingly there was a great deal of activity in September and I quote from an email received early in that month :

“This weekend past (Sept 2/3) I visited my birthplace London with my wife Linda to take in a West End show, to see my sporting heroes in the ‘Tour of Britain’ cycle race and to visit the Battle of Britain London Monument for the first time. Whilst admiring the work and looking for names of pilots that I had met over the years I noticed a couple walking past and then hesitating. Some sixth sense (or in my case second sense !) told me that they had some connection to the monument. Coincidentally, whilst pointing out the name of David Denchfield (who used to live near us in Cambridgeshire) to Linda, the lady of the couple asked me a question about the monument. She then backed off and I could see she was getting very emotional and then she said that the next name, George Denholm, was her Father ! Well, we were "gobsmacked". Her name was Hilary White from Melbourne, Australia, visiting the UK with her husband Ken. Mrs White had heard briefly about the memorial and was convinced that her Mother had visited it but freely admitted that she would have walked past it without my prompting. I am now happy to submit a photo of Mr and Mrs White (with their permission of course) for possible publication. A somewhat bizzare but terrific coincidental meeting. Regards, Dave Stanbridge”

Hilary’s mother Betty Denholm has indeed visited the monument from her home in Scotland. Battle enthusiasts will know that it was George Denholm who scattered the ashes of Richard Hillary (author of “The Last Enemy”) over the Thames Estuary after he had been killed instructing at RAF Charterhall in 1943.

**** ****

On the very same weekend the Monument sculptor Paul Day and I attended the ‘70th Anniversary of the Spitfire’ air display at the IWM Duxford as their guests and watched as Dame Stephanie Shirley unveiled a maquette of the ‘Scramble’ centrepiece from the monument. The maquette was purchased by Dame Stephanie and presented to the museum as a mark of her respect for the ‘Few’ – being Jewish her parents were prevented from leaving Nazi Germany and she was sent alone to the UK as a young child, in no doubt as to her fate should Britain be invaded. The maquette was accepted by the Chairman of the IWM Trustees, Sir Peter Squire GCB DFC AFC DSc FrAes.

Dame Stephanie's work now is mostly concerned with the treatment of autism (see www.steveshirley.com)

**** ****

The Battle of Britain Fighter Association (membership composed solely of Battle aircrew) hold their annual reunion at RAF Bentley Priory on the Saturday evening preceding Battle of Britain Sunday. They have kindly decided that their journey to Bentley Priory will now include a stop at the monument where a wreath-laying, prayer and sounding of the Last Post will take place. This event took place for the first time this year on the 16th September:

The Reverend Richard Lee from the RAF church St Clement Danes officiated and the wreath was laid by Air Commodore Peter Brothers CBE DSO DFC* - also pictured is a surprise guest, Ken Wynn, author of ‘Men of the Battle of Britain”, who was visiting the UK from his home in New Zealand.

**** ****

One of the smaller plaques on the monument records that the Spitfire and Hurricane were designed by Reginald Mitchell and Sydney Camm respectively.

March 2006 saw the 40th anniversary of the death of Sir Sydney Camm CBE Hon FRAeS 1893 – 1966. Spurred on by this and the fact that his grave in Long Ditton was found last September to have fallen into disrepair (but has now been restored thanks to a former worker from the Hawker aircraft factory, Brenda Bainbridge) 459 Squadron Air Training Corps, led by their CO F/Lt Stuart Leigh-Davies, have initiated a campaign to have Camm honoured in his home town of Windsor. On Friday 21st July a plaque was unveiled in St John the Baptist Church by Camm’s great-granddaughter, Chloe Barrett-Dickson, with tributes being paid by Ambrose Barber of the Hawker Association and ACM Sir Joe French, C-in-C Strike Command. Popular sentiment favours a full-size Hurricane replica on one of the town’s roundabouts but planning and other considerations may result in an alternative form, perhaps a statue.

**** ****

On Sunday 17 September 2006 a Battle of Britain Memorial Service was held at Sherwood Cemetery, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It has been organised each year for the last five years by 201 Confederation Wing of the Air Force Association of Canada.

200 Wing and No. 60 Squadron (Charlottetown) Air Cadets were also represented and many other ex-servicemen and local people attended. The cemetery is the last resting place of 20 airmen killed while training in the area in WW2, mostly from No. 2 Air Navigation School at Charlottetown.

Two of the burials are of airmen who flew in the Battle, George D Calderhead of 54 Sqdn and Bernard J Rofe of 25 Sqdn.

Thanks to Andrew and Ethel Anderson of PEI for the photographs.

**** ****

Flying Officer  Gordon “Mouse” Cleaver served with 601 Squadron in the Battle of Britain, survived the war and died in 1994. However his exploits were recalled on two occasions in 2006. The first was in January when the organisers of the Hahnenkamm, the toughest race in World Cup skiing, decided to present a “Cleaver Cup” to the highest placed British competitor in the race. Gordon Cleaver was the winner of the first competition in 1931, held on the mountain above Kitzbühel in Austria.

Cleaver, an Old Harrovian, was not even in the British team at the time which led the Austrians to conclude - wrongly - that if the Hahnenkamm could be won by someone who had not even made the team then the British must be brilliant skiers. The first international Hahnenkamm, organised "according to the British rules" of a downhill and a slalom combination, was a far more primitive affair than the modern race made famous by Franz Klammer and Hermann Maier. All downhills were off piste with competitors having to ski across country for several hours to reach the top of the mountain. The British contingent in the inaugural race was further handicapped because it was unfamiliar with the course and the organisers had forgotten to supply any marker flags. The British resorted to positioning their helpers along the run as human signposts.

Gordon Cleaver came sixth in the downhill and second in the slalom, making him the overall winner.

Another British competitor was Roger Bushell, during WW2 he organised and took part in “The Great Escape” and was subsequently one of 50 escapers recaptured and then shot by the Gestapo.

Cleaver went on to join the Auxiliary Air Force in 1937 and at the time of the Battle was flying Hurricanes with 601 Squadron at Tangmere. On Thursday 15 August 1940, with eight confirmed or probable victories to his credit, he was shot down during combat over Winchester. The aircraft’s perspex canopy was shattered by enemy fire and fragments were driven into his face and both eyes. Somehow he managed to bale out and parachuted down at Lower Upham outside Southampton. He was taken to hospital in Salisbury. He would not fly again, being now blind in the right eye and with seriously reduced vision in the left eye.

He was able to serve in a ground role in the RAF till late 1943 when he retired with the rank of Squadron Leader. During and after the war Cleaver was monitored by various surgeons and underwent 18 operations, some to repair facial damage and some (at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London) to remove the perspex fragments still embedded in both eyes. He made a special impression on an opthamologist named Harold Ridley who, as the Forties drew on, speculated that the perspex was in fact dormant in the eyes and not being rejected. Could this mean that a lens made from similar material could replace a human lens affected by disease or cataracts ? Ridley eventually felt confident enough to perform the first IOL (intraocular lens) implant at St Thomas’s Hospital on 29 November 1949 on a female patient with a cataract in one eye. The operation has subsequently been performed many millions of times throughout the world. It is arguable that had Gordon Cleaver not been injured in this way and survived to be studied then the operation may have taken even longer to develop (if at all) as such a condition could not be replicated as an experiment.

Of course the whole story is far more complex and has now been documented, after many years research, by American opthamologist David J Apple MD in “Sir Harold Ridley and his Fight for Sight” ISBN 1-55642-786-7

David contacted the London Monument website in order to research Cleaver and 601 Squadron and we were able to put him in touch with perhaps the last surviving pilot that served with “Mouse” in 601 and knew him well - Jack Riddle. Jack says that the nickname “Mouse”, perhaps unkindly due to Cleavers facial features when young and before his injuries, was so embedded that Jack only discovered that his name was Gordon on reading the book ! 

David Apple was also greatly assisted by a post-war adjutant and historian of 601, Reggie Spooner, both Jack and Reggie were kindly invited to the UK launch of the book at a sumptuous dinner at the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge in September. (David Apple is shown speaking below with Jack (L) and Reggie (R) at their table). Sadly Reggie Spooner died in December 2006.  

**** ****

The death of the last Czech Battle of Britain veteran, Frantisek Fajtl, was marked by a short service at the monument on 12 October. Czechoslovakia has of course since seperated into the Czech and Slovak Republics and officials of both embassies and armed forces were present. The press release of the Embassy of the Czech Republic follows:

“On 12 October 2006 at the Battle of Britain Monument in London, Czech Ambassador Jan Winkler paid respects to the late Lt.Gen František Fajtl, the legendary last Czech survivor of the Battle of Britain, who passed away on 4 October. Floral tributes laid on behalf of the people of the Czech Republic honoured not only Lt.Gen Fajtl but all the other Czechs whose names are proudly remembered on the plaques of the Battle of Britain Monument.
Remembering Lt.Gen Fajtl, Ambassador Winkler said: “We should never forget Lt.Gen Fajtl and all the other Czechoslovak servicemen who fought in Battle of Britain together with those of the other nations. Though we can never pay in full the huge debt of gratitude we owe them, we should always remember their valour and sacrifice that played such a crucial role in saving Europe from the terrible fate it was facing.”
At the ceremony, Ambassador Winkler was joined by Under-Secretary of State for Defence and Minister for Veterans Derek Twigg, Maj.Gen Ivan Schwarz, Chairman of the Free Czechoslovak Air Force Association, and Lord Tebbit, President of the Battle of Britain London Monument Appeal.
František Fajtl was born on 20 August 1912 in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1935 he graduated from Military Academy in Hranice and joined the Czechoslovak Air Force. He left Czechoslovakia in June 1939 and travelled to France where he was accepted in the ranks of Foreign Legion. He moved to the UK via North Africa and in August 1940 entered the RAF as Flying Officer. He took part in a number of operations both in the air and on the ground. During the Battle of Britain he shot down four enemy aircraft. Fulfilling various duties he remained in the service of the RAF until 1944. After WW2 he travelled back to Czechoslovakia and rejoined the Czechoslovak Air Force. In 1949 he was forced to leave the service and was later arrested, imprisoned and degraded by the Communist regime. In the 50’s and early 60’s he had to work in unskilled jobs before a partial rehabilitation in 1964. Since then he worked as aviation inspector and wrote a number of books. In 1990 František Fajtl was appointed Lieutenant General and fully rehabilitated.

Aged 94 Lt.Gen František Fajtl died in Prague on 4 October. His funeral with all due military honours took place in Prague on 13 October.”

**** ****

October 2006 saw the work of people in three countries come together in order to exhibit the original monument clay sculptures at a ceramics museum in Toronto, Canada. Although the monument is a war memorial it is also of artistic interest to the world of ceramics (i.e. terracotta, pottery, porcelain). Its potential was first realised by Anne McPherson, a consultant curator, who brought together Paul Day and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramics in Toronto. The first problem was how to transport the friezes, which had been separated in to separate fragments for the casting process, from their store in France to Canada. The museum approached the Canadian Air Force who kindly agreed to divert one of their C-130 Hercules aircraft from its return from Afghanistan to collect the carefully crated sculptures.

Once they had arrived in Toronto it was a race against time to be ready for the opening, the work was supervised by Paul Day and museum curator Sue Jeffries, seen here.

There then followed a Press launch and openings for the museum patrons and then the world at large, Anne McPherson is seen here with Paul Day and the representative from the Canadian Air Force veterans organisation plus the British consul.

The exhibition, which runs till 15 January, is succeeding in drawing in a large number of visitors who would not normally visit a ceramics museum.

A bonus was the opportunity to promote the exhibition by engaging the help of Ed Russell, who is in the fortunate position of owning his own Spitfire, Hurricane and Messerschmitt 109. Ed very kindly invited Paul and his wife Catherine to his hangar near Niagara Falls to see the aircraft. Ed visits Duxford several times a year where he is hour-building on a two-seat Spitfire to reach the required standard to fly his own aircraft.

Edward McManus
January 2007

-- END --