The Animals in War Memorial

Park Lane, London

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A striking memorial has been erected in London, England, to all the animals and other creatures that have been caught up in mankind's wars and have served, suffered and perished as a result. The idea for it came from author Jilly Cooper and some of her friends, a group of influential personalities in their own right, who in 1996 started the 'Animals in War' Memorial Fund with Anne, HRH The Princess Royal, as patron. Jilly herself donated to the fund all the royalties from her successful book Animals at War.

After a long and challenging nationwide fundraising operation to raise the £1 million or so needed, the Portland stone and cast-bronze memorial — designed by David Backhouse, one of Britain's leading sculptors — was unveiled on 24 November 2004, by Princess Anne, on its grassy site in central Park Lane, London. The fund will provide for its maintenance in perpetuity.

There's a cat to be seen among the animal silhouettes (included in the images below), and a mention on the memorial of the PDSA's Dickin Medal for valour.

The inscription carved on the front or inside of the memorial reads:

ANIMALS IN WAR

This memorial is dedicated to all the animals that served and died
alongside British and Allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time.

They had no choice.

Upon the rear or outside of the memorial are these words:

Many and various animals were employed to support British and Allied Forces in wars and campaigns over the centuries, and as a result millions died. From the pigeon to the elephant, they all played a vital role in every region of the world in the cause of human freedom.
Their contribution must never be forgotten.

As can be seen from one of the photos above, the PDSA's Dickin Medal is featured on the Animals in War memorial. Twelve recipients of the medal are buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery at Ilford, including Simon of HMS Amethyst, the only cat to have been awarded the DM. At a ceremony in December 2007 the cemetery was reopened after extensive refurbishment, and an account and photographs of the event can be found at this separate page.
Simon's own story is here.

Links:
Animals in War Memorial home site, with excellent photos throughout.
Wikipedia has more images, as do a gallery at Flickr, and another by Catsablanca.
Daily Telegraph 1 Nov 2004: They served and suffered for us – an interesting account of the memorial and the Princess Royal's views.
Daily Telegraph 25 Nov 2004: War memorial for all brave creatures great and small.
Daily Telegraph (Comment) 25 Nov 2004: Salute the dogs of war.

Woodbank Memorial Park

Stockport, UK

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In 1921 Sir Thomas Rowbotham, a former mayor of Stockport — then in Cheshire but now part of Greater Manchester — donated Woodbank Memorial Park to the townspeople in honour of the Stockport men who fell in World War 1, but although the park is registered with the UK National Inventory of War Memorials as a memorial park, there was nothing in the park itself to acknowledge its purpose. As with other, similar sites in the country, most local people had forgotten, or never knew about, its history.

When a council officer located a sum of money from which the interest could be used only in the park, the group known as the official 'Friends of Woodbank Park' was asked how the money should be spent. A tree had been cut into a totem a couple of years earlier in the hope that funding might become available for a sculpture, but at the time it wasn't a priority and nothing further happened. When the new money was offered it was insufficient for other, larger projects and so it was decided to develop the sculpture. It didn't take the animal lovers in the group long to decide that the subject.should be animals that had died in humankind's wars; that would be something unique to the park, while recognising its memorial status and acknowledging the sacrifice made by the innocents who did not volunteer to die.

The memorial takes the form of a chainsaw carving, situated on the park's main drive, not far from the entrance. The principal animal shown is a horse, at the top, but there are also a mule, a pigeon — and a cat. The cat is the least successful rendition, unfortunately; we were told it was 'supposed to look more like Simon'! Inscriptions carved around the trunk read 'They died in war' and 'They still serve in conflict'. As can be seen from the images, some were taken shortly after the carving was completed, the others after some months of weathering. There are plans to add a flowerbed at the base in due course, as well as an information board.

(With thanks to Anne Forester, Chair of the Friends of Woodbank, for contacting us and supplying the information.)

Other pages in our Cats in Wartime series
On Land and in the Air  ::  At Sea

Animals remembered elsewhere . . .

The greatness of a nation consists not so much in the number of its people or the extent of its territory as in the extent and justice of its compassion.

For animals, there is no Geneva Convention and no peace treaty — just our mercy.