The memorial, designed by Gordon Newton of War Memorial Limited, was ceremonially unveiled by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West on "Merchant Navy Day" September 4th, 2005. The theme of the memorial was very appropriately chosen to be "Time and Distance" which is represented by a sundial whose base is a compass rose with a bronze anchor and chain forming the gnomon. The compass points were manufactured from polished black granite and the base is made of Portland stone with bronze panels containing the names of the Merchant Navy and RFA casualties and their ships.
The central one of three bronze commemorative plaques on the monument circular base bears the following inscription:
In memory of those
merchant seafarers
who gave their lives
to secure the freedom
of the Falkland Islands, 1982.
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The other two plaques carry the names of the 17 Merchant Navy and RFA casualties and their ships (SS Atlantic Conveyor, RFA Sir Galahad, RFA Fort Grange and RFA Sir Tristram).
The Falklands War, also known as the Falklands Conflict, Falklands Crisis, and the Guerra del Atlántico Sur (Spanish for "South Atlantic War"), was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday, 2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities.
The conflict was a major episode in the protracted confrontation over the territories' sovereignty. Argentina asserted (and maintains) that the islands are Argentine territory, and the Argentine government thus characterised its military action as the reclamation of its own territory. The British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Falkland Islanders, who have inhabited the islands since the early 19th century, are predominantly descendants of British settlers, and favour British sovereignty. Neither state, however, officially declared war (both sides did declare the Islands areas a war zone and officially recognised that a state of war existed between them) and hostilities were almost exclusively limited to the territories under dispute and the area of the South Atlantic where they lie.
The conflict has had a strong impact in both countries and has been the subject of various books, articles, films, and songs. Patriotic sentiment ran high in Argentina, but the outcome prompted large protests against the ruling military government, hastening its downfall. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party government, bolstered by the successful outcome, was re-elected the following year. The cultural and political weight of the conflict has had less effect in Britain than in Argentina, where it remains a continued topic for discussion.
Relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina were restored in 1989 following a meeting in Madrid, Spain, at which the two countries' governments issued a joint statement. No change in either country's position regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was made explicit. In 1994, Argentina's claim to the territories was added to its constitution. [Wiki]