Erection date: 9/7/2005
{Low on each long side:}
The women of World War II
{On a plaque attached to the south side:}
This memorial was raised to commemorate the vital work done by over seven million women during World War II.
Funded by the charity Memorial to the Women of World War II and supported by National Heritage Memorial Fund.
{On a plaque attached to the north side:}
Unveiled by Her Majesty The Queen, 9th July 2005
The typeface used on the sides of the monument replicates that used in war-time ration books. The unveiling was one of the ceremonies to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of WW2 and included a fly-past of military helicopters flown by all-female crews. And the whole thing went off without a single crash - amazing.
2017: We are being quite severely criticised on Facebook, and email, for that last statement, which was intended as irony. Our complainant seems to have a base in London so we will write and suggest a meeting with her to sort out this misunderstanding, and will report back. (We received no response to our request for a meeting).
2022: inVISIBLEwomen has drawn our attention to the fact that this memorial TO women does not actually include a statue OF a woman. Initially we liked the creative concept, to show the discarded uniforms of people who will no longer need them because the war has finished and they have been able to go home, or possibly, more sadly, because they have been killed in the war. But for many women the war had been a brief period of exciting freedom, followed by a return to domestic drudgery. Seventeen years after the memorial was erected, with an awareness of how few statues there are to women, we now see it as a huge missed opportunity.
Site: Women in WW2 (1 memorial)
SW1, Whitehall
The shape of this monument was inspired by that of the cenotaph up the road.
Learn more about this memorial at Raise your hats!
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