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Defence Minister Phil Goff is backing plans to have a statue of New Zealand war hero Sir Keith Park put up in London's Trafalgar Square.
He has written to Terry Smith, the chairman of the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign in London, and to British Secretary of Defence Des Browne expressing Government support for the statue.
Mr Goff said it would give "overdue recognition" to a man who helped prevent the invasion of Britain.
Park, then an Air Vice Marshal, led Fighter Command's 11 Group, which was responsible for the defence of London and southeast England during the critical days of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940.
The RAF's fighters defeated the Luftwaffe and Hitler postponed and later cancelled the planned invasion.
"Chief of the RAF, Lord Tedder, said of Sir Keith in 1947: 'If any man won the Battle of Britain, he did. I don't believe it is realised how much that one man with his leadership, his calm judgment and his skill did to save not only this country but the world."'
Mr Goff said Sir Keith, later Air Chief Marshal, was a great and modest New Zealander, "a quiet achiever who did what was needed to be done and did it exceptionally well".
Sir Keith died in Auckland in 1975.
Early this month, Mr Smith launched the campaign to get a statue of Sir Keith placed on the famous Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square.
The plinth was built in 1841 and was originally intended for an equestrian statue.
It was empty for many years but is now the location of specially commissioned art works.
Mr Smith, a London-based New Zealand businessman, has committed $240,000 for the statue of the man dubbed London's "neglected hero".
- NZPA
