When I was in London in the
summer I found myself in Oxford Street with a couple of hours to
spare. After popping into some of the shops I made my way up to Hyde
Park to take a photograph of Speaker's
Corner. Upon looking at the map I noticed that marked on it was
something called the 'Animals in War Memorial'. Intrigued I went off
to have a look at it.
It is actually located just
outside Hyde Park on Park Lane. The simple idea behind it is to
commemorate all the animals that have served, suffered and died
alongside British, Commonwealth and Allied troops during conflicts in
the 20th century.
The memorial was inspired by
Jilly Copper's 1983 book Animals in War. Although Cooper is
best known for your romantic fiction books she is also an animal
lover and wrote a book detailing the role of animals in wartime.
Cooper was made co-trustee of the fund that was put together to raise
the £2 million required to finance the memorial. The memorial was
officially opened by Princess Anne on 24th November 2004.
The sculptor of the memorial
was David Backhouse. It includes four free standing bronzes - two
mules, a horse and a dog plus the main feature of the 70ft long
Portland stone wall carved with an assortment of the animals who
served. As well as the equine animals, dogs and pigeons, the war
effort over the years has been assisted by elephants, camels, oxen,
bullocks, cats, canaries and even glow worms.
On the front under 'Animals
in War' there are two separate inscriptions. The first reads:
“This monument is
dedicated to all the animals
that served and died
alongside British and allied forces
in wars and campaigns
throughout time.”
Below it is a shorter but
still very poignant inscription:
“They had no choice.”
On the back of the wall is
another inscription expanding on the main one on the front:
“Many and various animals
were employed to support British and Allied Forces in wars and
campaigns over the centuries, and as a result millions died. From the
pigeon to the elephant, they all play a vital role in every region of
the world in the cause of human freedom.
Their contribution must
never be forgotten.”
This Sunday, 13th
November 2016, there will a Remembrance Service at 3pm at the Animals
in War Memorial.
This is so interesting and I think sometimes people forget that sacrifices have been made by both humans and animals during the times of war. I love the movie War horse. Your post reminded me of it!
ReplyDeleteI think it's very true that animal sacrifice gets forgotten. So many animals died in the world wars from service animals to native wildlife.
ReplyDeleteI found out about this memorial when I was researching dogs that parachuted into Normandy on D-Day - the so called Paradogs. Thank you for writing about it. I did not know about that painfully poignant inscription: “They had no choice.”
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