FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1396.PDF
55° FLIGHT • ... . • : •: . (Left) The scene at Runny- mede at the moment of unveiling the memorial. (Below) After the ceremony had ended, the Queen (escort ed by Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith) and the Duke of Edinburgh walked among the relatives, 25,C00 of whom were invited to attend. THE RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL The Queen Unveils the Memorial to Commonwealth Airmen and Women THE weather for last Saturday's unveiling by the Queen of the Runnymede Memorial was grey and misty—the same kind of grey weather which, to many of those mourned for, must have meant a temporary respite from the stress of operational flying. And so, at Coopers Hill, where were gathered some 25,000 relatives and friends of the 20,500 airmen who gave their lives in the 1939-45 war and have no known grave (and whom the memorial honours) the greyness of the afternoon gave the proceedings a gentle touch of quietness, so appropriate to the occasion. Only after the sounding of the reveille did the sun shine, as a rainbow after a storm. By 2 p.m. most of those attending the ceremony, including more than 2,000 from overseas, were seated in a huge semi-circle before the memorial, the doors of which were curtained and draped with flags of the Commonwealth air forces. In front of the edifice was drawn up the R.A.F. Guard of Honour, with the Central Band in attendance. Flanking the building, the branch standards of the Royal Air Forces Association provided a splash of colour. Some 25 yards in front of the door was the sky-blue and white royal dais. Precisely at 2.20 p.m. the procession of officiating clergy moved up the main avenue to their appointed position near the dais. The choir of St. Georges, Windsor, was followed by the Rev. J. R. Appleyard (Principal Chaplain, United Board), the Rev. Canon A. S. Giles (Chaplain-in-Chief of the R.A.F.) and the Lord Arch bishop of Canterbury with his chaplain. In the procession was carried the Gold Cress of Canterbury. On her arrival at the main gate, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh in R.A.F. uniform, the Queen—with whom was Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother—was received by the Duke of Gloucester, who is president of the Imperial War Graves Com mission. Others present at the reception of the Queen were Gen. Sir Robert Haining, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey; Mr. Anthony Head, chairman of the I.W.G.C.; Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, Secretary of State for Air; the High Commissioners for South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Canada and India; Air Chief Marshal Sir William F. Dickson, Chief of the Air Staff; Admiral Sir Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, vice-chairman of the I.W.G.C; Mr. J. E. Ferguson, the High Sheriff of Surrey; Mr. J. Simpson, Chief Constable; Clr. R. H. Try, chairman of the Eeham Urban District Council; Mr. F. Higginson, secretary of the I.W.G.C.; and Mr. Edward Maufe, the architect of the memorial. As the party moved up the main avenue they passed between contingents from the Commonwealth air forces. On arrival at the dais Her Majesty was received with a royal salute, after which she descended again in order to inspect the Guard of Honour. During the inspection she was escorted by Sir William Dickson, and the band played Greensleeves—the traditional slow march of the R.A.F. Returning to the dais, the Queen was followed by the officiating clergy and the Service of Dedication began with the hymn The Lord is my Shepherd, I'll not want (the familiar words of the psalm are slightly changed when sung as a hymn). Selected from the third chapter of the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, in the Apocrypha, the Lesson included these appropriate lines: "But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure is taken for misery. And their going from us to be utter destruction: but they are in peace." Then followed the Lord's Prayer and a special prayer for the Royal Air Force, after which the Duke of Gloucester invited the Queen to unveil the memorial. Before doing so Her Majesty addressed the gathering, in a voice crystal-clear yet full of sym pathy; and at that moment many of us remembered that she, too, mourned a close relative—the Duke of Kent—who gave his life while serving with the R.A.F. during the war. The huge crowd, each litde group of which had brought a floral tribute, sat silent in order not to miss a single word. "It is very fitting," said Her Majesty, "that those who rest in nameless graves should be remembered in this place, for it was in these fields of Runnymede seven centuries ago that our forefathers first planted a seed of liberty, which helped to
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
