The Air Forces Memorial, or Runnymede Memorial, in Englefield Green, near

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England is a memorial dedicated to some 20,456 men and women from air forces of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

who were lost in air and other operations during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Those recorded have no known grave anywhere in the world, and many were lost without trace. The name of each of these airmen and airwomen is engraved into the stone walls of the memorial, according to country and squadron.

Design

The memorial was commissioned and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The architect was Sir

Edward Maufe Sir Edward Brantwood Maufe, Royal Academy, RA, FRIBA (12 December 1882 – 12 December 1974) was an English architect and designer. He built private homes as well as commercial and institutional buildings, and is remembered chiefly for his ...

with sculpture by

Vernon Hill Vernon W. Hill II (born August 18, 1945) is an American businessman, the founder and former chairman of Metro Bank, a UK retail bank with 77 stores, and assets of £7.4b ($10.6b). He was also the founder, former chairman, president and CEO of ...

. The engraved glass and painted ceilings were designed by John Hutton, and the poem engraved on the gallery window was written by Paul H Scott. It was the first post-World War II building to be listed for architectural merit. From the memorial there are views over the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

and

Runnymede Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with its adjoining hi ...

Meadow, where

Magna Carta (Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the ...

was sealed by King John in 1215. Distant views of

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

may be had from the viewpoint in the memorial tower; such monuments as the

London Eye The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London. It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United ...

and the arch of

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

are visible on clear days.

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...

and the surrounding area can be seen to the West. Image:AirForcesMemorial.JPG, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-2.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-3.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-4.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-5.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-7.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-9.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:AirForcesMemorial-12.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Image:Air Forces Memorial door bronze detail.jpg, One of eighteen bronze sculptures on the main doors of the Air Forces Memorial File:Airforce-entrance.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Runnymede Entrance Gates & Monument Front Aspect File:Airforcememorial-panelstructure.jpg, Image showing lay out of inscriptions by year nationality and rank File:Airforcerunnymede-cloister.jpg, Memorial cloister with remembrance stone before the central chapel surmounted by the Astral Crown File:Airforces-ceiling.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Runnymede England - example coat of arms of the Commonwealth Nations (here

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

) of the commemorated File:Airforces-portico.jpg, Air Forces Memorial Runnymede England - View of portico from chapel & showing lions passant in door File:Per Ardua ad Astra - geograph.org.uk - 1501532.jpg, RAF badge on the portico

Location

The memorial is on Coopers Hill Lane,

Englefield Green Englefield Green is a large village in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. It is home to Royal Holloway, University of London. The village grew from a hamlet in the 19th century, when much of Egham ( ...

, next to the former Runnymede campus of

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

and Kingswood Hall of

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

since 1965 when it was converted from a convent. For location map, showing its proximity to other Runnymede memorials, see

Status

It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and was completed in 1953.

People memorialised

Amongst the many thousands of airmen and women whose names are recorded on the Memorial are: * Flight Sergeant Edwin Watson, Scottish Air Gunner and Professional Footballer known as The Flying Fifer * Flight Lieutenant

Howard Peter Blatchford Wing Commander Howard Peter "Cowboy" Blatchford, DFC (25 February 1912 – 3 May 1943) was a flying ace, who achieved the first Canadian victory in World War II. Blatchford was born in Edmonton, Alberta on 25 February 1912, and enlisted in th ...

, Canadian

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

veteran pilot * Flying Officer

David Moore Crook David Moore Crook, DFC (24 November 1914 – 18 December 1944) was a British fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. RAF career After attending the University of Cambridge, he was mobilised as part of the Royal Auxiliary Air Forc ...

, fighter pilot * Flight Lieutenant Arthur ('Art') Donahue, American RAF

Flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

, author * Flight Lieutenant John Dundas, flying ace * Wing Commander Brendan (Paddy) Finucane, flying ace * Flight Sergeant John Forsyth Johnson, aviator, brother of entertainer

Bruce Forsyth Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series ''Sunday Night ...

* Squadron Leader Hilary Hood, Battle of Britain pilot casualty * First Officer ATA

Amy Johnson Amy Johnson (born 1 July 1903 – disappeared 5 January 1941) was a pioneering English pilot who was the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia. Flying solo or with her husband, Jim Mollison, she set many long-distance records duri ...

, aviator * Pilot Officer Vernon ('Shorty') Keogh, American RAF Battle of Britain pilot * Assistant Section Officer

Noor Inayat Khan Noor-un-Nisa Inayat Khan, GC (1 January 1914 – 13 September 1944), also known as Nora Inayat-Khan and Nora Baker, was a British resistance agent in France in World War II who served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE). The purpose of S ...

, GC recipient, SOE agent * Sergeant Leslie Lack, pre-war Arsenal F.C. football player * Flight Lieutenant

Eric Lock Eric Stanley Lock, (19 April 1919 – 3 August 1941) was a British Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. Born in Shrewsbury in 1919, Lock had his first experience of flying as a teenager. In the late 1930 ...

, flying ace * Pilot Officer William (Willie) McKnight, Canadian flying ace * Wing Commander

John Dering Nettleton John Dering Nettleton, Victoria Cross, VC (28 June 1917 – 13 July 1943) was a South African officer in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He is most famous for leading the Augsburg raid, a daylight attack against the MAN SE, ...

, VC recipient * Pilot Officer

Esmond Romilly } Esmond Marcus David Romilly (10 June 1918 – 30 November 1941) was a British socialist, anti-fascist, and journalist, who was in turn a schoolboy rebel, a veteran with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War and, following ...

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

writer * Pilot Officer Derek Teden, England

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

international * Wing Commander Alois Vasatko, Czech flying ace * Squadron Leader

Geoffrey Warnes Squadron Leader Geoffrey Berrington Warnes, (22 October 1914 – 22 February 1944) was a British pilot who flew with No. 263 Squadron RAF during the Second World War. He was described by Group Captain Johnnie Johnson as a "gay, cheerful charac ...

No. 263 Squadron RAF No 263 Squadron was a Royal Air Force fighter squadron formed in Italy towards the end of the First World War. After being disbanded in 1919 it was reformed in 1939 flying mainly strike and heavy fighter aircraft until becoming No 1 Squadron ...

References

External links