November 2024 Newsletter #14

The statue has been cast . . !!!
Follow-up regarding the portraits at the RAF Club, Piccadilly;
$35,000 required to complete the Sir Keith Park Memorial:
spread the good word to your friends, colleagues, associates and families;
AGM was been held, and Annual Return to the Charities Commission lodged.

The statue was cast at the foundry in China a couple of weeks ago. I now know that we will complete the Memorial. This has been quite a journey from late 2019 until now, all beginning with a meeting called by Michael Kemp at the Working Men’s Club in Grahamstown, Thames. Others whom I recall were there include Ken Clark, Paul Jennings and Gilbert James.

The Hurricane – Stage 1 – of the Memorial was completed and fully funded in ten months. Some achievement indeed!! Then along came COVID-19 with all the disruptions around lockdowns. A time when the philanthropic sector totally died.

As I have mentioned previously, I am indebted to our wonderful and highly talented sculptor – Joanne Sullivan – for her flexibility in supporting the project though these challenging times, and now, here we are!! The statue is scheduled to arrive in New Zealand either late January or early February 2025.

Below are three views of the statue at the foundry after casting. As the casting was done in a number of sections/components, there is still some welding and finishing to be carried out. Then finally the patina treatment (film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation), which will colour relevant parts of the statue, such as producing the yellow of Sir Keith’s Mae West.

The plan is for the statue to be erected and inaugurated at the Thames Battle of Britain Commemorations, September 2025. I am exploring options to display the statue at a temporary site in Thames through the period February to August, rather than have him/it languishing in the box for that time!

With several others at the unveiling of the portraits of ACM Lord Dowding and ACM Sir Keith Park 9th September 2024, I commented that these two new ones were – perhaps – not mounted appropriately. The photo below was taken on the evening of the unveiling: Park on the RHS and Dowding on the LHS of Churchill. Given their relative seniority, it seemed to me that this positioning was incorrect, and that Dowding should be affixed on the right hand of Churchill.

The portraits have now been repositioned as shown on the new photo below, taken early November. This arrangement also benefits from having both Dowding and Park looking in the general direction of Churchill! Churchill obviously favouring to look in the direction of ACM Sir Keith Park !@!

Although sufficient funds have been raised to cast the bronze statue of Sir Keith Park, funds in the order of $35,000 are still needed to get the Memorial project to the finish line.

Please help with a donation – to whatever extent you can.
The banking details are on our “Support” page.

For those of you who have already donated – for which I am most grateful – please spread the word to your friends, colleagues, associates and families to encourage them to make a donation. This is the most effective way by which we will meet our target.

Feel free to widely distribute this Newsletter, or any other of the material that I have sent you in the past to support the cause and spread the good word.

The Annual General Meeting of the Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield Incorporated was held at the Hauraki Aero Club on Sunday 17th November. A key motion passed was that the development and lodging of an updated Constitution and Rules will proceed as a matter of urgency as required by recent legislation. Not to do so would mean the dissolution of our incorporated society, which is not a course we are planning to follow.

The Annual Charities Services Return has been furnished and accepted. This being a requirement to maintain our charitable status.

CooperAitken again this year produced the annual accounts for the incorporated society at no cost. This they have done for us now on a voluntary basis for five years – for which we are most appreciative. CooperAitken has now asked that we look for another organisation to perform this valuable task as they are unable to continue on a voluntary basis.