June 10, 2013

FINEST HOUR 134, SPRING 2007

ABSTRACT
A HANDBOOK OF CHURCHILL MEMORIALS is to be produced by Finest Hour, designed to guide users to Churchilliana throughout the world. Reader assistance is essential.

==================

Finest Hour herewith begins a long-anticipated project: recording the details of all Churchill memorials all over the world. Eventually this may develop into a useful handbook, charting sites from Anchorage to Zagreb. It will also certainly be amalgamated in a section on our website. It is an ambitious project, since we want it to be comprehensive and up-to-date—a must for any Churchill traveller or explorer. By way of example, we have put together an initial list of statues and busts, which we do not pretend for a minute is complete.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024
More

Beyond just statues, we will include institutions, libraries, art galleries, colleges and schools, museums, memorials, houses (private and open to the public), busts, plaques, avenues, squares and parks.

There will be a chapter for each country, describing everything of interest in that country. We will include as much as we can find: photographs, historical background, dates, opening ceremonies, sponsors and financing, activities and services, contact details, websites, interesting stories, and information on the artist, architect and sculptor if applicable.

HELP WANTED

We will be using many different sources, but we will never be able to produce a truly comprehensive guide without help from readers of Finest Hour. We are therefore asking you to contact us by email with any information on memorials, statues, schools, etc. where you live, or which you know about and have visited. We especially need photographs, and your help in talking to people on the spot. All contributions from readers will be acknowledged in these pages and in more permanent forms of the handbook, unless of course you specifically request no acknowledgment. Thank you for your help in creating a guide which will be of great interest and value to Churchillians all over the world.

STATUES & BUSTS

Please send us your additions and corrections…

AUSTRALIA

Canberra: Ivor Roberts-Jones statue near Churchill House; a similar one at Australian National University.

BELGIUM

Brussels: Oscar Nemon statue.

BRUNEI

Bandar Sen Begawan: Nemon statue.

CANADA

Edmonton, AB: Nemon statue.
Halifax, NS: Nemon statue.
Fredericton NB: John Forrestall bronze statue, Legislative Building.
Quebec: Nemon bust.
Toronto: City Hall Nemon statue; Sunnyvale Hospital Rabb bust.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Prague: Ivor Roberts-Jones statue; Belsky statue, British Embassy.

CHINA

Sonjiang, Shanghai: Bronze statue, real estate development.

DENMARK

Copenhagen: Nemon bust.

FRANCE

Paris: Jean Cardot statue.

HUNGARY

Budapest: Innre Varga bust.

ITALY

Baveno, Lake Maggiore: Granite statue by local sculptor, Sr. Polli.

LUXEMBOURG

Luxembourg City: Oscar Nemon statue, Place Winston Churchill, 1973.

MALTA

Valletta: Upper Baracca Gardens.

MEXICO

Mexico City: Nemon statue.

NORWAY

Oslo: Ivor Roberts-Jones statue.

RUSSIA

Yalta: Bronze statue by Zurab Tseriteli of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin marking 60th anniversary of Yalta conference.

UNITED KINGDOM

Bletchley Park: Nemon bust.
Cambridge: Oscar Nemon bust, Churchill College; Franta Belsky bust, Churchill Archives Centre.
Ditchley Park: Angela Connor large bronze bust.
Dover: Nemon statue looking towards Dover Patrol Memorial.
Harrow: Epstein Bust.
Hoddesdon: Franta Belsky bust, Conservative Club.
London: Franta Belsky bust, Churchill Hotel; Nemon seated statue, Guildhall; Nemon statue, House of Commons; Jacob Epstein bust, MacConnal-Mason Gallery; Oscar Nemon bust, National Portrait Gallery; Lawrence Holofcener seated statue of Roosevelt and Churchill on bench, New Bond Street; Ivor Roberts-Jones statue, Parliament Square; Margarita Hernandez bust, Royal College of Defence Studies.
St. Margaret’s Bay, Kent: Oscar Nemon statue, The Pines Garden.
Westerham: Nemon statue, south end of big lake, Chartwell; Nemon statue, village green.
Windsor: Nemon bust commissioned by HM The Queen in 1953, Windsor Castle.
Woodford Green: David McFall statue; small Oscar Nemon Bust, Conservative Party headquarters.

UNITED STATES

Fulton, MO: Franta Belsky statue, Churchill Memorial, Westminster College; Belsky bust in entry lobby.
Hillsdale, MI: Heather Tritchka (Hillsdale alumna) statue with Churchill’s stand-up desk, Hillsdale College.
Kansas City: Oscar Nemon statue, “Tribute to Married Love,” commissioned by Churchill.
New Orleans: Nemon statue.
Washington: William M. McVey statue, British Embassy.

LUXEMBOURG’S STATUE: RESTORATION NEEDED

A project like this offers all sorts of ancillary benefits, such as checking on the current condition of Churchill Memorials around the world.

Mark Weston, a resident of Luxembourg, wrote to us of the “desolate and degraded” Nemon statue in Luxembourg City: “There are many significant American businesses here that are fond of their heritage: the John F. Kennedy Road from Kirchberg through the city itself; the Roosevelt Road that stretches through the city. Yet the hero who said ‘Never Surrender,’ who would have fought to the death for liberty, has only a statue far from the crowd, covered in bird excrement. I would restore it myself but I have no idea where to begin.”

Mr. Weston’s letter may be of interest to other readers faced with dilapidated Churchill memorials, and inspire restoration efforts such as the one undertaken in Toronto by ICS Canada and the Parliamentary Democracy Society (FH 128:12). It is indeed a sad state of affairs when a statue, particularly of Sir Winston, is not properly maintained, as any statues in the “open air” require.

I live in a remote part of Normandy, where there are several isolated headstones and memorials to British war dead. My wife and I clean these isolated headstones regularly. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains all the larger cemeteries—1.7 million headstones to British war dead in the two world wars —and does its job magnificently. The French office employs 450 people in the maintenance of the headstones and gardens. American cemeteries, such as the one at Hamm near Luxembourg, are maintained by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Quite obviously the situation in the City of Luxembourg is one of neglect. I suggested Mr. Weston contact the Mayor’s office, or through them the responsible department, bringing to their attention the lamentable condition of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, urging them to have the bronze professionally cleaned.

I suggested Mr Weston remind local authorities of the ceremonies which marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Luxembourg on 10 September 2004. They were led by Grand Duchess Charlotte, the sovereign who best represents the struggle for the independence of the country. These ceremonies included the laying of wreaths at the statue of Winston Churchill. 

There may be other memorials to Churchill in the Grand Duchy. His visit to Metz and Luxembourg on 14-15 July 1946 was a major event, and a film is available from the Centre Nationale de l’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg City.

A tribute, join us

#thinkchurchill

Subscribe

WANT MORE?

Get the Churchill Bulletin delivered to your inbox once a month.