Memorial to the Czechoslovak Legionnaires
23.06.2014 / 18:48 | Aktualizováno: 23.06.2014 / 19:09
(This article expired 24.06.2015 / 02:00.)
On 15 June, members of the Office of the Defence Attaché of the Czech Embassy and the authors of the project to build a memorial to Czechoslovak legionaries met with Mark Francois MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Stafordshire. The aim of the meeting was to inform Mr. Francois about the project to build a Czechoslovak Memorial at the largest memorial site of its kind in the UK and to gain his support.
The project is an initiative of the UK based organisations the “Association of Czechoslovak Legionaries abroad”, represented by Mr. John Kolbert and the “Free Czechoslovak Air Force Association”. Nick Southward, project coordinator, explained to the minister that the Associations´ aim is to establish a memorial to those Czechoslovak soldiers and airmen who were based in Britain in WWII and who fought alongside the British troops in their common struggle against Nazi Germany.
The National Memorial Arboretum which opened in 2001, is now the UK´s centre of Remembrance of all those who have given their lives in the service of their country regardless their military branch. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually, among them tens of thousands of school children. The authors of the project believe that the National Memorial Arboretum would be the most appropriate location to honour the memory of the Czechoslovak legionnaires who were based in the UK.
