Winston Churchill - Battle of Britain Monument - Victoria Embankment, London, UK
N 51° 30.177 W 000° 07.406
30U E 699638 N 5709680
The Battle of Britain Monument is located on the east side of the Victoria Embankment adjacent to the River Thames and opposite the southern end of the Ministry of Defence building. The words of Winston Churchill are engraved on the monument.
Waymark Code: WMQDGW
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/10/2016
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Part of a speech by Winston Churchill is inscribed on the monument in which those pilots involved in the Battle of Britain were known as "The Few". The inscription reads:
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Winston Churchill
This extract from the complete speech that contains the relevant sentence was taken from Wikipedia:
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain…
Wikipedia has an article about the Battle of Britain Monument that tells us:
The Battle of Britain Monument in London is a sculpture on the Victoria Embankment, overlooking the River Thames, which commemorates the British military personnel who took part in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War.
It was unveiled on 18 September 2005, the 65th anniversary of the Battle, by Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, in the presence of many of the surviving airmen known collectively as "The Few", following the Royal Air Force Service of Thanksgiving and Rededication on Battle of Britain Sunday. This service is an annual event, the first of which took place in 1943 at St Paul's Cathedral and since has taken place in Westminster Abbey.
The monument was conceived by Bill Bond, founder of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, who was later awarded an MBE for his services to heritage. He was solely responsible for negotiating with the City of Westminster to secure the site of the monument, as well as appointing Donald Insall Associates as architects. He also formed the fundraising committee after raising over £250,000 through an appeal. The budget was £1.74 million which was funded in the main by private donations. Bill Bond appointed Lord Tebbit as chairman of the fundraising committee.
The monument utilises a panelled granite structure 25 m (82 ft) long which was originally designed as a smoke outlet for underground trains when they were powered by steam engines. A walkway was cut obliquely through the middle of the structure, and is lined with panels of high relief sculpture in bronze depicting scenes from the Battle of Britain. The centrepiece is an approximately life sized sculpture of airmen scrambling for their aircraft during the battle. The outside of the monument is lined with bronze plaques listing 2,936 airmen and ground crew from 14 countries who took part in the battle on the Allied side.
The sculptor of the monument is Paul Day. The statue was cast by Morris Singer, which is the oldest established fine art foundry in the world and has cast many prominent statues and sculptures in London and around the world, including the lions and fountains in Trafalgar Square.