National Memorial Arboretum

Made from Chinese granite and designed to give a different perspective when viewed from different angles, the Star of David memorial is dedicated to Jewish servicemen who were killed on duty.

The elements of this garden represent all parts of the UK and Ireland. The Boys’ Brigade Garden is designed to remember those who have served in the Brigade since 1883. Sixteen Victoria Crosses have been awarded to former and serving Brigade members.

The memorial is constructed from 30 metres of the original rails and sleepers used on the Burma Railway, which were brought to the arboretum from Thailand in HMS Northumberland in 2002. The memorial is a permanent tribute to those who were forced to construct the infamous ‘Railway of Death’ and the benches and trees around the railway track have relevant dedications. The memorial was dedicated on 15 August 2002.^[9]

The Commandos were formed by the Army in June 1940 as a well-armed but non-regimental raider force employing unconventional and irregular tactics to assault, disrupt and reconnoitre the enemy.

This memorial consists of a reproduction of part of the Association badge – the wreath in copper and the Fairbairn-Sykes fighting knife in stainless steel. It was created at Anwick Forge in Lincolnshire.

The Polar Bear Association Memorial was the first monument and sculpture to be erected at the National Memorial Arboretum. It is a tribute to the 49th Infantry West Riding Division and was dedicated on 7 June 1998. In the Second World War they were stationed in Iceland and because they were snowed in under 20 feet (6.1 m) of snow for most of the campaign, their commanding officer called the men ‘his Polar Bears’ and the polar bear on a block of ice was soon adopted as their mascot and shoulder flash. Made from yellow hardwood, the bear is 9 ft long (2.7 m) and 5 ft high (1.5 m) and weighs 2.5 tonnes; it was created by the Essex Woodcarvers and took six men a year to carve. Inside the bear is a capsule containing the names of the members of the 49th Division who died, together with relevant letters and documents.

The RNLI memorial has been landscaped as a pebble, shingle and sand beach. The dramatic figure of a lifeboat man in his nineteenth-century oilskins and cork life jacket was sculpted by Andrew Fitchett.

During the First World War some 306 British and Commonwealth soldiers were shot for desertion or cowardice; the real cause for their offences was often a psychological reaction to the stresses of war which today would be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress syndrome or combat stress reaction. Shot at Dawn is modelled on Private Herbert Burden, of the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, who was shot at Ypres in 1915 aged 17.

The SANDS Garden is for bereaved parents. At the centre of the garden is a sculpture of the SANDS tear drop logo which was created by John Roberts and the Portland Sculpture Trust to encourage people to sit and touch the central carved figure of the baby.

A dedicated memorial has been erected in recognition of the contribution made by Polish service men and women to the Allied Forces during the Second World War. The centre monument sculptured by Robert Sobocinski was unveiled by His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent on 19 September 2009.^[10]

It is a memorial grove to all British policemen who have died on duty. Its trees are horse chestnut, because old-type British policemen's truncheons were made of horse chestnut wood.^[11]

This memorial is to children who have been affected by war or conflict. The central tree is a elder tree in memory of Anne Frank; each April its flowers and flower buds are removed, to symbolize that Anne Frank was not allowed to grow to adulthood and achieve her full life.

This plinth was unveiled on 1 September 2001. The plaque on the plinth has an Irish Tricolour and the words "Dedicated to all those who were serving on the following Neutral Irish Registered Vessels lost as a result of German action 1939-1945", followed by a list of ships lost. The front of the plinth has a plaque dedicated to Irish seamen captured while serving in the British Merchant Navy. They were not accorded POW status, but were treated as slave labourers. This plaque names the five (of 32) who died from ill-treatment.

Unveiled on 15 June 2014 the memorial to navy personnel is made up from a number of large pieces of coloured glass and a lone figure with bowed head.^[12]

Unveiled in 2001, the Sumatra Railway Memorial was designed by Jack Plant who was captured by the Japanese and forced to work constructing the railway. The memorial commemorates the 700 Allied PoWs who died building the Sumatra Railway. Several thousand captured Allied troops were forced to work on the 100 miles (160 km) railway. ^[13]

On 12 December 2014, a memorial on the centenary of the World War I Christmas truce, when British and German soldiers stopped fighting in the trenches and played football in no man's land, was unveiled by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the England national football team manager Roy Hodgson and Greg Dyke, chairman of the Football Association.^[14] The Football Remembers memorial was designed by ten-year-old schoolboy Spencer Turner after a UK-wide competition.^[14]