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Sir Keith Park

• Message 1. 

  Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Tuesday, 3rd November 2009

  I am not absolutely clear when the statue in Trafalgar Square of Sir Keith Park is to be unviled. Saturday’s Otago Daily Time said ‘in four day’s time’, which I take to be Wednesday. After the war Lord Tedder, Marshall of the Royal Air Force, said, “If any one man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don’t believe it is realised how much that one man, with his leadership, his calm judgement and his skill, did to save not only this country, but the world.�
  I don’t know if this is still the opinion of people, either in the military or in the general public, but presume he would not be the subject of a statue if he were not still thought of very highly. My children and their partners (around 30 years old) had not heard of him – one frowned and wondered if they might recognise the name, but that was all. They had all heard of Charles Upham, double VC.
  I am interested in this as Keith Park was, of course, a New Zealander. (I hope to you in Britain it is still, ‘of course’.) He was born in the Noprth Island but had his teenage years in Dunedin near where I live, and had his secondary education at a Otago Boys’ High School, joining the army in 1915. After being wounded he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and became major in command of 28 Squadron. He stayed in Britain after the war marrying there and having two sons. At the onset on WWII he was prmotoed to Air Vice-Marshall commanding No 11 Group, responsible for the defence of London and the southeast.
  He didn’t forget his New Zealand roots and donated a Supermarine Spitfire to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and returned to New Zealand with his wife in 1948. He became an Auckland city councillor for 9 years and died in 1975 aged 82. His younger son was murdered in Malaya while serving with the Perak Aboriginal Areas Constabulary – I am uncertain why he would have been serving with this unit – there were only three hits on Google for it.
  The newspaper called him ‘an unsung hero’ and that is true of him in New Zealand I think, but I don’t know about in Britain.
  
  Cheers, Caro.
  
  (My apologies if this has already been discussed - I don't come to the war board very often.)
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by dmatt47 (U13073434) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  Park is certainly well-known in the UK along with Hugh Dowding mainly in connection with the Battle of Britain. Park's statue on the fourth plinth in Traflgar Square is a temporary measure, there have been a lot of suggestions of who to put on the fourth plinth and it is on a rotating basis at the moment. Park will be getting a permanent statue on the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain next year.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  Caro
  
  The statue was unveiled today - unfortunately I didn't get over to see it.
  
  As dmatt says, the permanent statue is to be unveiled next year. The plan is to put it in Waterloo Place, which is off Pall Mall and near the High Commission. Waterloo Place is apt for other reasons - if you look carefully, you can find the marks of bomb damage from the summer of 1940.
  
  Our newspapers, too, have been referring to Park as a "forgotten hero". I don't think that is fair, either to Keith Park or to British memory. The Battle of Britain is one of the best known episodes of modern history (do you chaps get Armstrong and Millar in NZ?) and Keith Park is probably the best known RAF commander after Dowding and Harris. And I am fairly sure the one thing people know about him as a person is that he was a Kiwi!
  
  When the statue goes up, incidentally, he will be the only officer of his rank in any of the WWII Services to have a statue in London.
  
  You are right, he had a very distinguished record. He was Dowding's Senior Air Staff Officer before Dowding promoted him into 11 Group just in time to command the air cover over Dunkirk. Dowding trusted him to fight a careful battle instead of the uncontrollable mob tactics Leigh-Mallory favoured. Tedder's judgement, which you quote, was not just endorsement of Park, but a coded reproof to Slessor and Douglas, who had backed Leigh-Mallory.
  
  Park was not sacked after the Battle - he was worn out and needed a rest. He went on to be AOC Malta at a key moment (after which he needed to be rested again) and finished the war as CinC Allied Air Forces South East Asia, ironically taking the command after Leigh-Mallory was killed in an accident.
  
  I would recommend Vincent Orange's "Park" to anyone interested in this outstanding officer.
  
  Cheers
  
  LW

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  I suppose this isn't the right board to be wondering why a war hero gets a statue but people who foster hundreds of difficult children, for instance, and seem to me very heroic, never do.
  
  Cheers, Caro.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  Caro
  
  Having re-read your post, I have seen your question about Colin Park. He had joined the Malaya Police after the war, because he had had to leave the Army after an accident resulting in the death of a German child through carelessness.
  
  Colin was his mother's favourite and his death hit her very badly.
  
  LW

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  Caro
  
  If it's any consolation, in Waterloo Place Park will be near the statue of Florence Nightingale.
  
  LW

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Wednesday, 4th November 2009

  Thanks for that, LW. Sorry my first post was neither very well set out or well spelt. I do apologise. It was typed onto Word too, but apparently I didn't bother with spell-checking, or obviously any checking at all.
  
  You have made Colin Park's life seem worth checking up on more. Even if he wasn't his favourite the death of a child as a young man in that way would hit a mother (or father) badly, I think.
  
  I don't think we have Armstrong and whoever here, but I don't watch a lot of television, so may just have missed it. They are comedians perhaps? But why would comics be talking about the Battle of Britain? Perhaps I have that wrong.
  
  Cheers, Caro.
  
  

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• Message 8

  , in reply to message 7.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Thursday, 5th November 2009

  Caro,
  
  Armstrong and Miller (I can't spell, either) are indeed comedians. One of their recurring sketches involves two RAF WWII pilots who, instead of displaying the cleancut schoolboy virtues of The Few, display the attitudes and speech patterns of modern schoolkids.
  
  My reason for mentioning them is that the concept only works because the audience knows enough about WWII RAF pilots (if only from films) to relish the contrast. The sketches are also very, very funny. You can find them on YouTube. My favourite is the one where they are shot down and interrogated ("It's not fair, man. I was only in the plane 'cos I'm going out with his sister").
  
  Colin Park's story is rather sad, but not untypical of the immediate post-war period. He had been wounded in Burma and there was some question of why he was back on duty in Germany when the accident occurred. At the time of his death there was some question of whether his guide had led him and his colleagues into a trap (the guide was unscathed although all three of them were killed).
  
  Colin Park wasn't the only son of a prominent war leader to die in the End-of-Empire period. Wavell's son (by then the 2nd Earl Wavell) was killed as a Black Watch major in the Mau-Mau Emergency. By a sad coincidence, Colin Park had also served in the Black Watch.
  
  LW
  

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