roughdiamond Posted 22 September , 2013 Share Posted 22 September , 2013 Looks like instead of putting a lid on one can of worms and having a think about things, they've just opened another to join it. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelS Posted 14 October , 2013 Share Posted 14 October , 2013 The latest news on the scheme of Lance Sgt Beharry VC joining the judging panel for the design competition Click NigelS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petroc Posted 15 October , 2013 Share Posted 15 October , 2013 Just to add my own tuppenny-bit...I think that, notwithstanding the difficulties in establishing exactly WHERE a memorial should be located (place of birth/residence/regimental or Arm of Service connection/familial, social or educational ties, etc, all of which have echoes in the 'criteria of commemoration' on local war memorials which still often befuddles any of us interested in said monuments), is precisely why our elected government has decided that funds should be thus spent; Does this now set a precedent? Are commemorative paving stones to be sanctioned for VC recipients who were decorated for service in later (or earlier) conflicts? I'm not totally against the commemorative recognition of the highest award but am not sure if it sits comfortably with an exclusively Great War term of reference Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchener's Bugle Posted 28 October , 2013 Share Posted 28 October , 2013 He is a recent update that I have received:-.............seems like common sense! Commemorative paving stones Oct 13.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 29 October , 2013 Share Posted 29 October , 2013 They no doubt had the same problems when deciding who to add to local Memorials. If a VC holder appears on the local Memorial, then good enough reason to merit a commemorative paving slab. I'm with Andy on this one though. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Wood Posted 29 October , 2013 Share Posted 29 October , 2013 Are commemorative paving stones to be sanctioned for VC recipients who were decorated for service in later (or earlier) conflicts? I'm not totally against the commemorative recognition of the highest award but am not sure if it sits comfortably with an exclusively Great War term of reference I thought the idea was to commemorate them on the centenary of the VC - so 1914 in 2014 etc - obviously it would be some time before WW2 recipients were marked in this way, but I quite like the idea of a continuing programme of commemoration. The downside being the likelihood of a scheme like this lasting that long. The other question is when are the Crimean /. Boer / etc VCs going to be commemorated? I also like the idea of stones in two or more locations if more than one place has a 'claim' to the VC - but I wonder how the extra stones are to be funded? My impression was that central govt was funding the plan, I am now getting the idea that local govt will foot the bill. If so it worries me a bit that some local councils may not want to get involved for some ideological ('we don't believe in war') or political ('we should spend the money on old people's care') reason and that the scheme may degenerate into petty bickering in some places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Ridgus Posted 2 November , 2013 Share Posted 2 November , 2013 You only have to look at the furore over where the final resting place of Richard III should be to imagine how the VC project is likely to go. The Richard issue is 500 years after the event and yet has wound up in the courts with a very unseemly tug of war over the king's bones described by the judge as 'undignified and unedifying'. I hope I'm wrong but I think unfortunately that 'petty bickering' might be an understatement David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baorbrat Posted 3 November , 2013 Share Posted 3 November , 2013 It is a badly thought out scheme of the Three Gurkha VC winners of WW1, only the White Officer is to get a paving stone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelS Posted 3 November , 2013 Share Posted 3 November , 2013 Today's Sunday Telegraph (3rd November) shows the winning design (by Charlie MacKeith, an architect from Blackpool) for the stone Click. Regardless of whether the scheme is appropriate, IMO the design is, although the illustration doesn't give any indication of how the 'electronic reader' (QR code?) will be incorporated. NigelS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelS Posted 17 November , 2013 Share Posted 17 November , 2013 A piece in today's Sunday Telegraph (17th November) 'Salute to foreign VCs' by Peter Dominiczak gives: Combatants from the modern commonwealth who won Victoria Crosses are to have their bravery honoured to mark the centenary of the conflict.More than 170 VC winners will be commemorated in their home countries, Downing Street has said.The soldiers being honoured include Ghurkas and those from countries such as Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka.The scheme has previously applied only to recipients born in Britain who will be remembered with a paving stone in their home town.Downing Street said officials were looking at ways to properly commemorate the fallen of the war from the Republic of Ireland, which was part of the UK at the time There doesn't seem to be anything official on this so far, but the on-line edition of the Cambridge News Click gives that PM David Cameron made an announcement on his way back from the Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka - strange, would have expected such an announcement to have been made at the summit. NigelS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petroc Posted 23 November , 2013 Share Posted 23 November , 2013 This appears to confirm the last posting from Nigel; no information other than a promise to liaise with, and contact officials from, Commonwealth Nations; Is this going to be a Commonwealth programme after all, or not? Are the members of Commonwealth Nations to commemorate VC winners in their own countries or are they to be commemorated here in the UK? What about, as History shows with regard to post-1918 War Memorials, the questions which arise from the issue of those men from one ethnic/local background, who resided in another place/nation, served in multiple units, were memorialised in more than one place etc, etc. Once again, to me at least, it seems that the British Government has made some promises that the practicalities and intricacies of which have not quite been followed through to a proper conclusion...Fabian Ware must be rolling around and desperate to get back and involved in this one! www.centenarynews.com/article?id=1239 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchener's Bugle Posted 26 December , 2013 Share Posted 26 December , 2013 The design in my view is a "bit basic".... I was much more impressed with the Secondary School Winners...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petroc Posted 27 December , 2013 Share Posted 27 December , 2013 I agree; very impressive. But to return to an earlier point in relation to Commonwealth and former-Dominion nations and states, (and no disrespect to the young designer of the featured stone) would a representation of a 'British Lion' be appropriate to,say, a stone commemorating a New Zealander, even if said Kiwi had been born in the UK? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbill Posted 31 May , 2014 Share Posted 31 May , 2014 Does anyone know how to get on to the appropriate office to ensure that a stone is to be located at the proper place? My mother's cousin Edgar Kinghorn Myles V.C., D.S.O., was born in East Ham (now Newham) and spent at least the first seventeen years of his life there, but several sources erroneously give his birthplace as Wanstead which is where his family moved to shortly before the outbreak of WW1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGM Posted 31 May , 2014 Share Posted 31 May , 2014 I really don't know, lancejack, - but why not go straight to the top: From #1: Communities secretary Eric Pickles revealed there will be a national competition to design the paving stones.............. HIS WEBSITE includes this contact information: If you are not a constituent of Brentwood and Ongar and wish to contact Eric in his role as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government please email him at eric.pickles@communities.gsi.gov.uk Good luck! CGM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbill Posted 1 June , 2014 Share Posted 1 June , 2014 Many thanks CGM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbill Posted 27 June , 2014 Share Posted 27 June , 2014 CGM - Following your suggestion to Start at the Top - I did just that, and from there eventually ended up in contact with the right Government department, and also the right Newham Council department. Again - many thanks. the contact for VC Commemorative stones is The Department for Communities and Local Government at VCpavingstones@communities.gsi.gov.uk Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CGM Posted 29 June , 2014 Share Posted 29 June , 2014 I am very pleased you have been successful! CGM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggers Posted 21 August , 2014 Share Posted 21 August , 2014 Sunday 24th August is the centenary of the action in which Major E.A. Alexander RFA and Captain J. Grenfell, 9th Lancers won their Victoria Crosses. Liverpool City Council is to place a memorial stone to Major Alexander and hold a dedication ceremony close to the entrance to Princes Park at 1100 hours on Sunday, attended by the Lord Mayor and representatives of various organisations including the local TA (sorry Reserve) Gunner unit. The site of this memorial is near Devonshire Road, where Alexander was born in 1870. Daggers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seadog Posted 28 August , 2014 Share Posted 28 August , 2014 Victoria Cross Paving Stone Bristol An example here in Bristol outside the ruined St Peters Church on Castle Green destroyed by German bombing in WW2. In my opinion this is the latest example of another crackpot scheme to mark the centenary of WW1. The image has not been enhanced and the stone is almost unreadable although only a few days old. Add to this people walking all over it plus copious amounts of bird sh*t and in a short while it will look a right mess. I intend no disrespect but I cannot find that this man had any connection to Bristol if you know otherwise please comment. Norman PS Apparently born in Clifton - see below Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gareth Davies Posted 28 August , 2014 Share Posted 28 August , 2014 Douglas Reynolds was born in Clifton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roughdiamond Posted 28 August , 2014 Share Posted 28 August , 2014 Victoria Cross Paving Stone Bristol The image has not been enhanced and the stone is almost unreadable although only a few days old. Add to this people walking all over it plus copious amounts of bird sh*t and in a short while it will look a right mess. Seadog Couldn't agree more, I made the following point on this thread in August last year when this IMHO infinitely idiotic project was announced. "There's a reason why most gravestones are vertical, statues stand on plinths, commemorative plaques are mounted on walls, no one wants to trample on those they seek to commemorate." Please take the following statement not as a direct similie which compares the creators of the "Paving stone" idea to those in my statement, it's merely to illustrate why I believe the paving stone idea is "infinitely idiotic". In Germany the Nazi's removed headstones from Jewish graves to use as paving material to further insult that race. There are no "Positive aspects" to the following phrases, they all have negative conotations: Trampled under foot Downtrodden Walked all over Ground under the heel Spat upon S*** upon (see Seadogs post above) When these stones inevitably wear away due to the foot traffic, crack during the winter frosts as paving stones do or become the target of vandalism by those who have a different perspective of the British Military, will there be a fund or the inclination to replace them or will they remain there, damaged as a testament to the idiocy of their concept and an insult to those they seek to commemorate? Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelS Posted 28 August , 2014 Share Posted 28 August , 2014 The VC commemorative stone for Capt. Grenfell at Guildford has been mounted vertically on a wall on the inside of an arch (details Here), so less likely to suffer damage from the elements (although I'm not impressed with the way it seems to have been done. The one for Sidney Godley at East Grinstead appears to have been set in at the foot of the war memorial there The idea of incorporating QR codes in the stones, appears to have been quietly (?) dropped.NigelS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggers Posted 29 August , 2014 Share Posted 29 August , 2014 As I have illustrated on another thread, the stone for Major Ernest Alexander in Liverpool has been laid flat, but not on a section of pavement which will be walked on. I consider that a sloping base would be better, to allow rainwater to run off. D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelS Posted 3 September , 2014 Share Posted 3 September , 2014 The paving stone to honour Captain Theodore Wright VC will be unveiled at Brighton War Memorial this (3rd September) afternoon. Apologies if this is too late for anyone who might have wished to attend, but only recently heard about it on the BBC Surrey & Sussex local radio news. Details & some other related links Here NigelS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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