As I live on the south coast I booked a couple of nights away in Tamworth which gave me the chance to spend a whole day at the Arboretum.
I travelled up on the Sunday and after checking in to the hotel spent the evening walking around Tamworth and enjoying dinner and a pint at the local Wetherspoons, The Bole Bridge.
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Early Monday morning I headed back to the train station and picked up the local bus service whick took about 30 minutes to reach the Arboretum.
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McIndoe, born in New Zealand, trained in plastic surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital and became one of the leading plastic surgeons. His work at the Queen Victoria during World War Two saw those airmen with horrific burns to their faces and bodies, known as 'McIndoe's Guinea Pigs', given pioneering reconstructive surgery.
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Vera Atkins was an intelligence officer whose responsibility included choosing and looking after the women who were sent to France as couriers, radio operators and to assist the French Resistance. After the war she went back to Europe to find out the fate of those agents who did not return.
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Designed by ten-year old Spencer Turner it features two bronze hands, one British and one German, shaking hands all enclosed within a wire football. The stone plinth has the wording, 'Christmas Truce 1914... Football Remembers'.
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It also bears the inscription, 'In Rembrance of 956,703 British Empire men and women who fell in the Great War 1914-1919.'
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The bronze memorial shows two girls dressed in their respective uniforms. The Land Girl is holding a sprig of corn and a pitchfork while the Lumber Girl has an axe over her shoulder and is holding a pine cone and sprig of oak, This sybolises both kinds of work they undertook, in agriculture and timber.
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Early Monday morning I headed back to the train station and picked up the local bus service whick took about 30 minutes to reach the Arboretum.
I arrived just as they opened and was greeted by a very polite member of staff who enquired if it was my first visit and was there any memorials in particular that I was interested in seeing.
As I had already purchased a guide book a few weeks before I had a very good idea and plan for the day.
As I had left the hotel early I took the opportunity to enjoy a breakfast at the Arboretum restaurant which was very nice. I have to say, once again, all the staff were very polite. Breakfast eaten it was time to start exploring.
Before I talk about just a few of the memorials I visited, a short history of the site.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a site of remembrance in Alrewas near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
The idea was suggested by Commander David Childs, CBE who, in 1988, wished to create a centre for remembrance to those who had lost their lives in defence of their country.
In 1994 Prime Minister John Major launched an appeal believing that the Arboretum would become a living tribute to the service men and women.
Three proposals were agreed... the site was to be the location of the Armed Forces Memorial, the Ministry of Defence would pay a grant allowing free entry into the site and The Royal British Legion would accept the site as somewhere for the nation's year-round remembrance.
At first there was no money for the land, staff or trees and it was only an idea. Fortunately The National Lottery granted forty per-cent of the funds required with extra funds being donated by both civilian and military organisations.
The area chosen for the site was reclaimed gravel workings located between the Trent and Tame Rivers and donated by Tarmac Lafarge.
Work commenced in 1997 and the Arboretum was officially opened on 16 May 2001 by Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.
The site covers approximately 150 acres, contains more than 25,000 trees and over 420 memorials to the armed forces, civilian organisations and voluntary bodies that all played a part in serving the country.
The largest memorial, which is positioned at the heart of the Arboretum close to the entrance, is the Armed Forces Memorial. A tribute to 16,000 service personnel who lost their lives in conflict or as a result of terroist acts, since the Second World War.
Designed by Liam O'Connor Architects there are inner and outer walls with each of the names inscribed on them.
At 11am on 11 November each year the sun shines through the gaps between the inner and outer walls casting a shaft of light across the wreath that sits in the centre of the memorial.
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The first memorial to be erected was The Polar Bear Memorial: 49th Infantry West Riding Division. Made from yellow hardwood it took six years to create. Standing 9ft long, 5ft high and weighing over 2 tonnes it is an impressive structure.
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It is a tribute to the 49th Infantry West Riding Division who fought in Flanders during the First World War. They received the nickname 'The Polar Bears' during the Second World War when they were stationed in Iceland and fought in Norway, often in more than 20 inches of snow.
The memorial was dedicated in 1998, three years before the Arboretum's official opening in 2001.
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The Guinea Pig Club was formed in July 1941 by Allied aircrew who were being treated for severe burns. The members were being treated by Sir Archibold McIndoe and his team at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. At the end of the war there were more than 600 members of the Club.
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McIndoe, born in New Zealand, trained in plastic surgery at St Bartholomew's Hospital and became one of the leading plastic surgeons. His work at the Queen Victoria during World War Two saw those airmen with horrific burns to their faces and bodies, known as 'McIndoe's Guinea Pigs', given pioneering reconstructive surgery.
Carved from green slate the memorial is formed in a similar shape to a Spitfire wing. At the botton there is a depiction of a crashed Hurricane with a vapour trail running down from the top. The trail actually forms a facial outline of McIndoe. An inscription reads, 'Out of the flames came inspiration.'
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The work of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) is remembered with the Vera Atkins Memorial Seat designed in the form of a hexagram, a 6-pointed star, and a shape that is used in many cultures around the world.
The shape of the memorial was chosen as it encompasses a pine tree that was grown from a seed found in a cone from the Natzweiler Concentration Camp by Annette Colton and planted at the Arboretum by her in 2008.
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Vera Atkins was an intelligence officer whose responsibility included choosing and looking after the women who were sent to France as couriers, radio operators and to assist the French Resistance. After the war she went back to Europe to find out the fate of those agents who did not return.
There are plaques placed around the memorial with details of those agents who did not return, either executed or died of diseases at concentration camps including Dachu, Ravensbruck and Natzweiler.
The agents include, Violette Szabo, Lilian Rolfe, Diana Rowden, Noor Inayat-Khan and Yolande Beekman but many others are listed.
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Two memorials have a connection with football and they both commemorate events during the First World War.
Christmas Truce Memorial: Football Remembers is dedicated to the soldiers from both sides engaged in an unofficial truce in No Man's Land on the Western Front on Christmas Day 1914. During this brief respite from the horrors of war they shook hands, chatted, exchanged gifts and took part in an impromptu game of football.
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Designed by ten-year old Spencer Turner it features two bronze hands, one British and one German, shaking hands all enclosed within a wire football. The stone plinth has the wording, 'Christmas Truce 1914... Football Remembers'.
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The second football related memorial is to the players, staff and supporters of Clapton Orient Football Club who served and died with the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment. They became known as The Footballers Battalion.
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The dedication reads, 'Footballers who were used to playing together on the field wished also to be together on the battlefields of Flanders and to be side by side with those with whom they fought at football.' In October 1946, Clapton Orient Football Club adopted the name Leyton Orient.
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Also in this area of the Arboretum is a stone with a plaque that has final lines from Robert Laurene Binyon's poem, For The Fallen, 'They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them.'
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It also bears the inscription, 'In Rembrance of 956,703 British Empire men and women who fell in the Great War 1914-1919.'
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Many women have seen active service, both at home and on the battlefields, and their contributions are remembered on several memorials.
The Women's Land Army and Timber Corps Memorial is a tribute to those women who provided additional agricultural support and provided food and timber to aid the war effort.
By 1943 more than 80,000 worked in the Land Army and were known as Land Girls. A further 6,000, known as Lumber Jills, worked in the Timber Corps.
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Both the Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC) and the Auxiliary Territorial Service are commemorated with statues.
The first, known as the 'WRAC Lady', pays tribute to all the women who served in the WRAC between 1949 and 1992. They played a big part in dealing with emergencies and security threats in Northern Ireland, Iraq, the Falklands and many other countries.
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The second statue remembers those women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service which was the women's branch of the British Army and who served in the Second World War. Formed in September 1938 it had its roots in the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) which was formed in 1917 as a voluntary service. The ATS existed until 1949 when it was merged with the Women's Royal Army Corps.
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Pegasus Bridge, originally called the Benouville Bridge, was a crossing over the Caen Canal. Along with Ranville Bridge (later renamed Horsa Bridge) which spanned the Orne River, their capture was vital in defending the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy and the Airborne Forces drop zones to the west and east of the bridges.
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Operation Deadstick, an operation that saw six Horsa Gliders released from Halifax aircraft landing near to the bridges, resulted in the capture of both bridges.
The Pegasus Bridge Memorial, which commemorates this event, depicts three Horsa Gliders set in a giant letter 'S' on a metal column. The 'S' represents the way the raid was carried out... in secret and silence with stealth, speed and surprise.
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The June 1944 D-Day Landings are remembered on the Normandy Veterans Memorial. The design of the memorial is based on the Normandy coastline, viewed from the sea, where the landings took place.
In front is a stone plinth with two metal plaques, one with a brief history of the D-Day landings and the other has the inscription, 'This plot is dedicated to all those men and women who took part in the Normandy Campaign of 1944.'
A map showing the coastline and beaches and the various army groups that landed is also featured..
Nearby are five stones, one for each of the beaches... Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah and Omaha.
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During the First World War 309 soldiers (British and Commonwealth) were shot for desertion, cowardice and other crimes and they are remembered at the Shot at Dawn Memorial.
The main statue depicts a young soldier, blindfolded and about to face the firing squad. Behind the statue are 309 metal posts arranged in a semi-circle, each with a small metal plaque bearing the name, rank, regiment and date and their age when they were shot.
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Today it is known that many were underage when they joined up and many more suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), something which wasn't recognised back in the First World War. It would be the 1980s before it was recognised as a medical condition.
A Pardons Campaign which commenced in the early-1990s aimed to pardon those who were wrongly convicted.
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The Royal Airforces Association Remembrance Garden (RAFA) is an impressive memorial to all those who served in the RAF and Commonwealth Air Forces.
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In the centre of the 50-metre garden is the Royal Air Force Association emblem, a stainless steel eagle sitting above a globe. The eagle was constructed from more than a thousand hand-forged feathers.
The eagle is surrounded by an RAF roundel separated into four different sections which depicts the Association at the heart of RAF welfare.
The plinth on which the eagle stands has the dedication, 'In friendship and in service one to another we are pledged to keep alive the memory of those of all Nations who died in the Royal Air Force and in the Air Forces of The Commonwealth. In their name we give ourselves to this noble cause. Proudly and thankfully we will remember them.'
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The Women's Royal Air Force Memorial celebrates the work of the women who served alongside their male counterparts in the ranks or as commissioned officers.
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The WRAF has had a long and varied history. Formed in 1918 it was disbanded just two years later in 1920. It was replaced in 1939 as the Women's Auxiliary Airforce (WAAF) at the start of the Second World War. The WRAF was reinstated in 1949 and women were enlisted as regulars into their own branch of the RAF.
In 1982 women were trained to be fully combatant and carried on the same duties as the men. They served in various conflicts including Cyprus, the Falklands and the Gulf War.
The Women's Royal Air Force ceased in 1994 with terms and conditions equal for both men and women and they were absorbed into the RAF.
The memorial features two WRAF personnel either side of their badge and underneath are the dates they were active... 1918-1920 and 1949-1994.
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The railways have played a major and important role in wars over the years and this is remembered with The Railway Industry Memorial which celebrates the achievements of those who worked on the railways and also gave their lives during times of conflict and peace.
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The memorial features a Class 8F locomotive made of black granite sitting on top of a plinth. The reverse features a number of depictions of various activities carried out by the railway workers and companies. This is etched onto the black granite.
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The 36th (Ulster) Division Memorial is dedicated to the Officers and Men of the 36th (Ulster) Division and the Nursing and Medical Corps who served behind them during the First World War.
The black granite stone is inscribed with gold lettering and at the top is the heraldic red hand, the insignia badge of the Division. At the centre of the stone is a painting, by J. P. Beadle, of the Attack of the Ulster Division, showing the fighting on the first day of The Battle of The Somme.
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Under the painting is the poem 'Lest We Forget' and either side are listed the battlefields in which they fought... Ypres, Messines, Cambrai, Passchendaele, Fricourt and others.
Scattered around the memorial is soil from Ulster's nine counties and also the Somme, Messines, Passchendaele Wytschaete and Polcapelle.
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The Burma Railway Memorial is a tribute to the more than 250,000 Allied prisoners of war and civilians who were forced to build the 258 mile 'Death Railway' which ran between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma.
Work commenced in October 1942 but the pace increased the following year when the Japanese demanded faster progress. The railway was completed in October 1943 but at a terrible loss.
Over 15,000 Allied POWs and 100,000 labourers died during the construction and are remembered in this memorial.
The memorial is constructed from 30-metres of original track and sleepers from the railway which were brought back to Britain in 2001 on HMS Northumberland.
A FEPOW (Far East Prisoners Of War) plaque explains more about the memorial while another at the other end of the track shows the route of the railway.
The Bridge Over The River Kwai, as it has become known and depicted in the film of the same name, was just a small part of the railway and crossed the Mae Klong River in Kanchanaburi. Following the success of the film people began visiting the bridge and to avoid any confusion that part of the river was renamed Khwae Yai (River Kwai).
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One of the recent additions to the site is the memorial to the 97 soldiers who were killed in the massacre at Le Paradis, France. This was one memorial that had a special significance to me as, back in 2023, I actually visited the site of the massacre during my Leger Battlefield Tour, Dunkirk and Fortress Europe, which was very interesting and emotional.
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On 27 May 1940, during the Battle of France, the British Expeditionary Force were trying to retreat back to Dunkirk and then evacuation back to England.
Troops from the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Norfolk Regiment, had become separated from the rest of their unit and occupied, and defended, a farmhouse in the small hamlet of Le Paradis. Running out of ammunition they surrendered.
Soldiers from the SS Division Totenkopf, commanded by Haupsturmfuhrer Fritz Knochlein, led the prisoners across the road where they were stood against a wall and gunned down. Two, despite their injuries, managed to escape but were captured a few days later.
After the war, Knochlein was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed in 1949. The two survivors acted as witnesses.
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Having just mentioned one memorial that relates to the events of May 1940, The Battle of France and Dunkirk, it brings me to the final one I will cover in this article.
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The Dunkirk Memorial was one of the last I visited during my trip and my own personal favourite due to its simplicity and the fact that it said all that was needed to remember what happened during those few weeks in May when more than 338,000 troops were evacuated from the beaches in Dunkirk. The rifle and helmet sit on pebbles and sand that came from the beaches.
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This article has only covered a few of the memorials I visited and there are many, many more to be seen.
The National Memorial Arboretum is a beautiful and peaceful place and a great tribute to the many regiments, organisations and events that are remembered here.
As mentioned earlier, the staff are exceptional and very helpful not only in the reception and the restaurant but also out and about. They were always happy to give directions and information.
If you haven't been to the National Memorial Arboiretum I can highly recommend it and am already planning to visit again one day.
Note: There are plans to rename The National Memorial Arboretum and from the end of September it will be known as The Royal British Legion National Remembrance Garden. There has been a lot of controversy with this decision and a petition to stop the change has been signed by thousnads of people. My own feelings is that it should stay as The National Memorial Arboretum.
