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As president of Fields in Trust, the Duke of Cambridge will visit
the War Memorial Park in Coventry on 16th July to mark
the Memorial Park being the first to be dedicated as part of Fields
in Trust’s ‘Centenary Fields’ programme, which is in partnership
with the Royal British Legion.
The aim of the programme is to safeguard in perpetuity the war
memorial parks, playing fields and other green spaces in the UK
given to mark the sacrifice of those who sacrificed their lives
during the First World War.
On the day, Prince William will lay a wreath at the base of
the War Memorial before seeing children engaged in a number of
sports activities and poppy planting. The visitor centre at the
park will also welcome His Royal Highness for a reception before he
delivers a short speech and unveils a plaque to commemorate the
park as part of the Fields in Trust campaign.
The Centenary Fields programme is a new project from Fields in
Trust and is in partnership with The Royal British Legion and Poppy
Scotland and it will operate from 2014-2018. It will commemorate
the First World War in local communities and each site that is
dedicated as part of the programme will receive a commemorative
plaque indicating its status and its partnership with Fields in
Trust, The Royal British Legion and the Local Authority.
The Duke of Cambridge became president of Fields in Trust in April
2013 after The Duke of Edinburgh retired from the position after 64
years. The Duke was also Patron of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields
Challenge which safeguarded open spaces to celebrate The Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee.
The War Memorial Park in Coventry was opened in July 1921 as a
tribute to the Coventrians who died during the Great War.
Coventry Council used money donated by the public to buy the
land from the Lords of Styvechale Manor. During the
Second World War, the park was used as a site for barrage balloons
and anti aircraft guns.
On the following day, the Duke of Cambridge as Patron of IWM
Foundation’s First World War Centenary Campaign will visit the
Imperial War Museum in London to open its new First World War
galleries.
The IWM was established while the First World War was still being
fought, to ensure that future generations would not forget the toil
and sacrifice by those affected by it. A hundred years on, the IWM
continues to collect and record the stories of those affected by
war in Britain and the Commonwealth.
Imperial War Museums’ new First World War galleries will open
this summer to mark the start of the centenary, the galleries will
however be a permanent fixture and visitors will get the chance to
discover the story of the war, how it started, how the allies won
and the global impact the war had.
With over 1300 objects on display ranging from weapons,
uniform and equipment to letters, diaries, keepsakes, trinkets,
photographs and film and art, every object on show will tell
stories not just of destruction, suffering and loss but also of
endurance, innovation, duty and devotion, comradeship and love.
The atrium of the IWM has also been transformed to reflect the
centenary, the space will be filled with newly curated displays of
objects, film and artwork from the museum’s rich collections to
tell the story of the conflict from 1914 to the present day.
The Duke of Cambridge became Patron of the IWM’s foundation First
World War Centenary in December 2010 and the £40 million
transformation has been made possible with donations from funders,
sponsors, trusts, foundations and individuals. A donation of £6.5
million was made by the Heritage Lottery Fund and £5 million from
the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.
The Imperial War Museum is a family of five museums, which includes
the IWM London, IWM North in Manchester, IWM Duxford, the Churchill
War Rooms and historic ship HMS Belfast. They seek to provide for
and to encourage the study and understanding of the history of
modern war and wartime experience.
Photo Credit: Sergeant Alison Baskerville RLC/Defence
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