Wall Of Remembrance - an Appeal

It has been a long-held wish of Avril’s that her ‘Ocean Villas’ complex should first and foremost be a place of remembrance for the soldiers that fought during the Great War.

Most of you will be aware of her plans for the barns and other buildings on the opposite side of the road to her house and tearooms. Two of the most important goals that Avril has for this area are for a conference centre, and a museum that has one man’s lifetime collection of Great War and Second World War artefacts ready and waiting to be installed. To bring these plans to fruition, and at the same time turn Avril’s establishment into the place of remembrance that she so much desires, the idea of a wall of remembrance has come into being.

This project is to be based on the idea used in other countries, where the public are invited to ‘buy a brick’, upon which the details of a Great War soldier are inscribed. In this case, the brick is more likely to be substituted by a plaque that will become one part of a wall covering. If the project captures the public’s imagination to the degree that it is hoped, then one wall will become several, and a wonderful area of remembrance will have been created.

Whilst it is hoped that people will once again wish to remember those who died, maybe with a known grave or those unfortunately forever listed as missing, the really important feature about this particular project of remembrance is that Avril wants ALL Great War servicemen and servicewomen to have the chance of being remembered. So, if Grandad died about thirty years ago, having fought in the Great War as a young man, then he would be an ideal candidate to have his wartime efforts remembered here. Anyone who served in the Great War suffered somewhere along the line; those who survived carried that pain with them for the rest of their lives. Usually there was no recognition of what they had had to put up with beyond being allocated the appropriate medals, which were unacceptable to some of the recipients. If you would like to say ‘thank you’ to one or more of these old soldiers who ‘faded away’, then here is the most marvellous opportunity. As a suitable accompaniment to the museum collection that has been the life work of Frenchman Andre Coilliot, Avril also wishes to set up a French Wall of Remembrance. Whilst the project is in the making, Andre has offered to use the old tearoom to make a mini-museum, and use it as a place to show the ideas behind the wall and museum endeavour.

Although this project will be an accomplishment in its own right, it is undoubtedly a fundraiser to help complete those bigger plans mentioned above. Yet such is life that even fundraising plans need money behind them to bring them about. Recently, Avril has received two particularly generous donations, for which she is very appreciative; and it is the knowledge that she has this significant amount of money to support her that she feels able to go ahead to try and bring the idea of the Wall of Remembrance into being.

The project would be set up as charitable organisation. At this early stage, Avril would be very pleased to hear from anyone out there who has experience of projects run under such conditions, and of course any feedback about the idea in general. Without dropping into legalities for the present, the funding vision is as follows; the donations already received should be enough to get the Wall of Remembrance started. When the wall becomes firmly established, profits will go towards the purchasing of the collection and then to the creation of the museum that will house it. Further profits from the wall, if everything goes as well as hoped, will take care of the upkeep of the wall and the documentation to support it, the running of the museum (the intention is that the collection in the museum will be free to view), and possibly the upkeep of the reproduction trench on the land beyond the barns. All this money will be kept completely separate from the rest of Avril’s establishment, and will only be used to further the welfare of the immediately mentioned objectives.

Jon Miller

p.s. Jan '08 The Wall of Remembrance is now operational, go here for more...