Hawker Typhoon Memorial Petition

Signing these petitions may not achieve much on the face of it (eg Bomber Command Memorial petition) but is doesn’t do any harm either. It at least shows veterans that there is still an interest in their history and it brings veterans families together (very important). I have seen the effort the French made to build and maintain their Typhoon Memorial. It is very impressive considering that it does not even commemorate their aircraft or their pilots. It is an embarassment that the nearest thing to a Typhoon memorial in the UK is a reconstructed Typhoon supplied by the USA. I can’t see any reason why building memorials would have any adverse effect on the lottery budget. Perhaps less money could be spent on useless “diversity” projects, on educating illegal immigrants or on the bloated 2012 Olympic Money-Pit? If anyone wants to build a Memorial to the Queen Bee or the Vickers Warwick then I wish them luck, I would sign their petition and I hope that they succeed before the relevant veterans are gone (my dad served on Warwicks).

kev35, I especially like the idea of a Queen Bee memorial. Lets start the petition now.:D

BTW….I will reply to you and your requirements. Soon!

The age-old defense to suggestions of cynism is that it is actually realism. So, not original then, but I will say it nevertheless. I am neither ignorant of, or indifferent to the sacrifices of all the allied aircrew.

My personal feeling is that right now it is more important to commemorate the people than the hardware. Whilst there will be a time in the future to build a Typhoon memorial, I would suggest that both funding and enthusiasm will be hard to raise just at the moment.

I realise that if it is postponed for long, few if any of the vets would get to see it. This is a shame, but does not detract from the actual purpose and validity of such a memorial.

But it saves them hours in not having to recycle tons of petitions that used to be delivered to No.10 each week

Charley.

“I see no reason why lottery funding or government funding should not be spent on a memorial to a particular type of aircraft. Such money gets spent on much less important projects.”

Ah, I see your point now. Bearing that in mind might I suggest that the government and HLF supply funding for a Memorial on each of the following types….

Auster
Anson
Albermarle
Blenheim
Beaufort
Botha
Catalina
Defiant
Dakota
Flying Fortress
Hamilcar
Horsa
Hampden
Kittyhawk
Liberator
Lysander
Lancaster
Manchester
Norseman
Queen Bee
Stirling
Tempest
Tomahawk
Whitley
Wellington
Warwick……..

The list is far from exhaustive. Perhaps the Government and HLF should stop spending on defence, the NHS and education and we could have Memorials to all those types and many more.

This E Petition business is getting out of hand by allowing the most ridiculous ideas to be petitioned for or against without any real hope of the petitioner, in the main, achieving any kind of satisfactory conclusion.

regards,

kev35

Surely the Typhoon at Hendon is the best memorial to the type??

Win a million!

Whilst the underlying intention is laudable, the very fact that you think this is an appropriate way, and a good time to submit such a request casts serious doubts about your suitablity to oversee this project.

As you concede, it has liitle chance of being built (for ‘little’ read ‘zero’) which makes this just gesture politics and an thus a completely non-productive exercise.

Sorry to sound so negative, but thats how things are right now, and the same reality applies to the ‘Vulcan’ petition.

I’ll pay you a million pounds if you can find where I have said that I am “overseeing” this project… I am simply trying to raise some publicity for a project started by other people. And yes those people are “getting off their arses” to raise private funds for the memorial and to do a lot more. I see no reason why lottery funding or government funding should not be spent on a memorial to a particular type of aircraft. Such money gets spent on much less important projects. The French built their Typhoon memorial with government support. No reason why it can’t happen here despite such cynicism. The purpose of the project is (obviously) to allow veterans and their families to commemorate the Typhoon at a location accessible in the UK rather than trekking across the Channel. To think those vets risked their lives for such cynicism…

Whilst the underlying intention is laudable, the very fact that you think this is an appropriate way, and a good time to submit such a request casts serious doubts about your suitablity to oversee this project.

As you concede, it has liitle chance of being built (for ‘little’ read ‘zero’) which makes this just gesture politics and an thus a completely non-productive exercise.

Sorry to sound so negative, but thats how things are right now, and the same reality applies to the ‘Vulcan’ petition.

Although I appreciate the part played by the Typhoon and all those connected with it I cannot see why it should be singled out from all the other aircraft of WW2 for special attention..
Surely the government connected museums at Hendon,Lambeth etc should be seen as the collection point for dedication, respect, knowledge, artifacts, memories and attention from the countries point of view.
If a person or organisation thinks a place has special significance then they should organise the funds to mark what happened at that place, if they wish.
Where would a Typhoon memorial be sited, Kingston where they were designed, numerous places where they were built, every airfield they operated from. Cant see the point. Sorry.

Richard

Basically if you think a memorial is appropriate, forget the government, get off your arses and start fund raising and make it happen. Good luck

With all due respect, and however worthy a Typhoon memorial might well be, I cannot see any chance that Government or even Lottery funding might be set aside for such a venture. Frankly, and I am not trying to be contentious, but I see no particular reason why they should. Where would this stop? Public/Lottery funding ought to – dare I say it – go to more deserving and more generic projects. There is nothing wrong with a Typhoon memorial, per se, if there is any level of support for it in the UK – but the funding should be privately sourced and in any case the likelihood anyway of any Government backing is somewhere less than zero as Denis has pointed out. Really, the petition is futile.

The only unfortunate thing, is that the government does not fund or designate memorials. The last Number Ten petition for a Bomber command memorial, fell by the wayside for that very reason.

Thanks for the link, Mark12. The Napier report is slightly misleading. The memorial is in Noyers-Bocage which is a few kilometres from Villers-Bocage. We are campaigning to build a similar memorial in the UK that would commemorate all aspects of the the Typhoon’s service.

Villers Bocage.

http://www.napierheritage.org.uk/spip.php?article100443

Mark

Err, isn’t there one at Hendon?

Best wishes
Steve P

It is a long time since I have been there. There is a Typhoon there (sadly not completely original) but I don’t remember seeing a memorial to the Typhoon squadrons. We are campaigning to build a stone or marble memorial. The favoured sites at present are Manston, Tangmere, Thorney Island or possibly at the RAF Museum Hendon. If the latter then it could be linked to the preserved Typhoon in some way.

Err, isn’t there one at Hendon?

Best wishes
Steve P