Far from the front

In both World Wars, many men and women contributed to the war effort without being on the front line. Some lost their lives in air raids or industrial accidents. The memorials erected to them are a means of communicating their lives and contributions.

A set of benches in Barra Hall Park, Hayes, were donated by EMI in 2002. They commemorate the women who worked in its Hayes factory when it was hit by a V1 (flying bomb) in 1944. Thirty-seven workers lost their lives.

"Here you are beside me again
Memories of my companions killed in the war
The olive-branch of time."
Shadow by Guillaume Apollinaire

The memorial to the SS Aquila at the Church of St Edmund the King, Northwood Hills, commemorates the 20 members of the Women's Royal Naval Reserve and the naval nursing officer who died when their ship was torpedoed at sea en route for Gibraltar in 1941. This carved and gilded angel with its lifeboat is a monument to a hinterland somewhere between home and active service.

War memorials commit the fallen to individual and collective memory. They reflect the efforts of past communities, and remind current and future generations of the tragic costs of conflict.

Lest we forget