The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment Memorial - Maidstone, UK
N 51° 16.557 E 000° 31.228
31U E 327057 N 5683432
This meorial is to The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment for those who lost their lives between 1946 and 1966. The memorial, in the form of a statue, stands in a courtyard of the Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery.
Waymark Code: WMR9X9
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 05/29/2016
Views: 3
The Maidstone Museum and Art Gallery has a section of museum set aside for The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment and is a fitting location for this memorial to its members who lost their lives between 1946 and 1966.
The brass plaque on the front of the plinth, atop of which is a two-thirds life-size sculpture of a soldier in Malayan campaign dress, is inscribed:
The Queen's Own
Royal West Kent Regiment
(50th and 97th Foot)
1756 - 1966
This statue is erected in memory of those of
The Regiment who gave their lives in the service
of their country in operational theatres between
1946 and 1966
and recognises the long and close relationship
between the Borough of Maidstone and
The Regiment which endures to this day
Sculpted by Peter Birkett
2013
The BBC News website reported the unveiling in September 2013:
Kent museum statue marks Maidstone's regiment link.
A bronze statue has been unveiled in Maidstone to mark the long relationship between an army regiment and the Kent county town.
The statue, which is in front of the town's museum, is of a soldier wearing a uniform from the conflict in Malaya.
The 1st Battalion The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment (QORWK) was deployed to Malaya in March 1951.
Links between the regiment and the town can be traced back to 1794. The QORWK merged with other regiments in 1961.
After the barracks closed, the regimental museum was moved to the town's museum in 1964.
Communist revolt
A service and dedication ceremony for the statue took place on Sunday during an annual reunion of the regimental association.
The statue was being unveiled by Maidstone mayor Councillor Clive English and General Sir Geoffrey Howlett, who served with the regiment in Malaya in 1953.
Names of 28 members of the regiment who lost their lives in Malaya are recorded on the plinth along with other soldiers who died between 1946 and 1966.
The so-called Malayan Emergency was a communist-inspired revolt against the British authorities which lasted until the late 1950s.