Plymouth to get Blitz Memorial

Kyt · Oct 14, 2008

City will get memorial to civilian casualties of the Blitz

AN EXTRAORDINARY £20,000 donation to Ford Park Cemetery means Plymouth will finally get a memorial to those who died in the Blitz.

Following the success of the cemetery trust's Rejuven8 appeal last month, the anonymous donor pledged the full amount needed to bring the memorial to life.

It will honour all 1,200 or so civilians from the city who died as a result of German bombs during the Second World War, with all known names listed on slate plaques. The memorial will take the form of a dedication panel below the east window of the Victorian chapel, which will be restored as a result of the Heritage Lottery Funding recently secured with remarkable help from the community.

Below the panel will be a series of slate plaques inscribed with victims' name, age and date of death and efforts will be made to group families together and order all names chronologically. Chairman of the Ford Park Cemetery Trust, Dr Henry Will said he hoped the memorial will become a "place of pilgrimage" for all those who lost family in the Blitz.

"This crowning act of generosity puts the seal on an extraordinary fundraising effort by hundreds across the city and far beyond for whom Ford Park is very special.
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"This donation enables us to memorialise the restored chapel in a manner worthy of the civilian war dead.

"Abercrombie, in his Plan for Plymouth, wanted such a memorial placed in Charles Church but – presumably due to financial stringency at the time – it was never done.

"We are proud to be able to complete his vision now and, although the setting is not the one he visualised, we believe he would have approved of it."

Dr Will added that the aim was to create a narrative within the memorial which will show the intensity of the famous bombings of the city in March and April 1941.

Barbara Mills lost her parents, grandfather and ten-year-old sister in the bombing of Portland Square during that time.

They are all buried at Ford Park and Mrs Mills, from Cornwood, said seeing the completed memorial would be an emotional experience.

"It would make me very proud of them and all the others who were killed during the war," said the 78-year-old.

"I was going to have a plaque put on my family's grave but I thought it would be more worthwhile what Dr Will is doing.

"It's something that will always be there and it is there for everyone – it will always be a memory for years to come."

Author Veronica Norman, whose book, Scattered Homes – Broken Hearts, is set against a backdrop of the Blitz is also moved by the prospect of a memorial.

Her 23-year-old sister, a member of the ATS, died in the war and is also buried in a service grave at Ford Park.

Miss Norman, 76, said: "I was buried alive in the blitz so it means a lot to me.

"I know Abercrombie had plans for Charles Cross Church to be a memorial but it was never finished.

"It's important we don't lose our English social history in this day and age and it's easy to forget that charity begins at home.

"Our generation would not want to see something like the Blitz happen again. I think this is a splendid idea and a project for Plymouth as a whole."
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Plymouth to get Blitz Memorial

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