Francis Joseph Frederick Edlmann - Petts Wood, Kent, UK - Citizen Memorials on Waymarking.com

On the front of the stone, at the top, is a National Trust logo with the wording "Petts Wood". Beneath is the main inscription that is carved into the face of the memorial. It reads:

This woodland
was saved
in 1927 by
Francis Joseph
Frederick Edlmann
and was given
to the
National Trust
in 1957 by
Robert and
Francesca Hall

On the rear of the memorial are two small plates. The first is inscribed:

This stone
was given by
Clifford Lowe Platt
Chairman of the
Petts Wood Management Committee
1939 - 1974

The other reads:

The Golden Jubilee
of the gift of
The Hawkeswood Estate
was marked by
Rededication at this stone
on 26th April 2008

The PMSA website tells us about the Edlmann stone:

A Cornish granite pillar, roughly rectangular in shape, rough hewn all over and tapering slightly towards the top. Has inscription on south east face in a smoothed panel carved into the surface. It is set directly in the ground, beside a path in woodland. Above this is a National Trust metal plaque; comprises a circle bearing the National Trust symbol of oak leaves, with the words 'The National Trust' around the edge. The circle merges at the bottom into a rectangular name plate, Petts Wood. The lettering is black on a white background and the leaves are green. On the back of the pillar is a bronze plaque commemorating the donation of the memorial.

When the Willett Wood had been purchased as a memorial to William Willett, the originator of British summer time, it was handed over to the National Trust to administer. A. Horace Bird was chairman of the management committee. There was still some woodland on the western edge which the fund had been unable to afford, a total of 47 acres. This was bought in 1927 by Colonel Francis Edlmann and added to his adjacent Hawkwood estate. The whole of the wood was temporarily safe from development, but when Colonel Edlmann died in 1950, the Hawkwood estate was put on the market. Although the 47 acres were offered separately at £2,000, the National Trust was unable to afford its purchase but offered to administer it if money could be raised from the public to buy it. Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District Council used its powers under the Town and Country Planning Act to keep the estate free from development and in 1955 a public enquiry upheld this decision. The chairman of the management committee at the time was Clifford Platt who spoke at the enquiry about the strong local opinion in favour of keeping the area as public open space. The estate was bought by a local couple, Robert and Franscesca Hall, who wanted to preserve it, and handed over to the National Trust. The 47 acres of woodland was named the Edlmann Memorial Wood. The memorial to Edlmann and the Halls was unveiled on 23 April 1958. Robert Hall was killed three months later in a car accident; his wife was badly injured but later went on to become chairman of the management committee.