Animals in War Memorial

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 51°30′40″N, 0°09′26″W The Animals in War Memorial is located at Brook Gate, Park Lane, on the edge of London’s Hyde Park and was designed by leading English sculptor, David Backhouse. Unveiled on 24 November 2004 by the Princess Royal, it exists as a memorial to the huge number of animals that have served and died under British military command throughout history. Beneath the main header: "Animals in War", the memorial has two separate inscriptions, the first and larger reading:

"This monument is dedicated to all the animals that served and died alongside British and allied forces in wars and campaigns throughout time."

The second, smaller inscription simply reads:

"They had no choice."

Enemy animals are excluded from the memorial.

The memorial was inspired by Jilly Cooper's book, Animals in War, and was made possible by a specially set up fund of £1,400,000 from public donations of which Jilly Cooper was a co-trustee. The memorial consists of a 55 ft by 58 ft (16.8 m by 17.7 m) curved Portland stone wall: the symbolic arena of war,^[1] emblazoned with images of various struggling animals, along with two heavily laden bronze mules progressing up the stairs of the monument, and a bronze horse and bronze dog beyond it looking into the distance.