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The Otago Boys' High School Foundation
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A statue honouring Sir Keith Park (1909-10) was unveiled in London yesterday in front of more than 1,000 guests.
Sir Keith Park's statue aloft the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. |
Sir Keith commanded the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain and is credited with Allied success in the Battle of Britain in 1940.
The five-metre high statue was erected on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square where it will remain for six months. A three-metre high bronze version of the same statue will be unveiled in September next year on its permanent site in nearby Waterloo Place.
Sir Keith served with the New Zealand army at Gallipoli and the Somme in WW1 before becoming a pilot and shooting down 20 enemy aircraft. He was an air vice-marshal in the Royal Air Force and commanded its No 11 Fighter Group during the Battle of Britain in 1940.
Showing tactical brilliance and inspirational leadership, he was credited with playing a vital role at a time when the German Luftwaffe threatened to destroy Britain’s air defence system.
The unveiling ceremony was the culmination of two years’ planning and fundraising led by British financier and historian Terry Smith. Among those who watched proceedings were 16 Battle of Britain veterans, many relatives of RAF veterans and three members of Sir Keith’s family.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said Sir Keith’s achievements were underrated.
‘‘Sir Keith Park did not merely help a very few brave people to win the Battle of Britain” he said.
‘‘In helping to save Britain, he helped to save Europe from tyranny, and in helping to save our nation’s capital, he saved the love of democracy — the generosity, the tolerance, the refusal to bow down before bigotry that gives London its character and makes it the greatest city on earth.’’
It was after the final hours of the Battle of Britain’s that British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had been alongside Sir Keith at RAF headquarters, composed the speech made legendary by the line ‘never has so much been owed by so many to so few’.
