KEY POINTS:
Support is growing for a statue commemorating New Zealand-born Battle of Britain leader Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park to be put up in London.
In December, the Rotorua Daily Post reported that London-based businessman Terry Smith was to launch a campaign to have a statue of the military leader placed on the fourth and final plinth in Trafalgar Square.
Rotorua dentist Rodney Park, a great-nephew of Sir Keith, said the family were delighted with the idea.
"The family is supportive of Mr Smith and wish him luck. He is up against it, but obviously he is keen to make a big effort. He is the guy with the bread and the brains to do it," Mr Park said.
The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Smith will launch his campaign, with two London mayoral challengers and a replica Spitfire, in Trafalgar Square this Friday.
Mr Smith said it was "a matter of national honour" to commemorate the airman because it was "unbelievable that there is no recognition of a man who made such a massive contribution to Britain's defence".
"He has been completely ignored except for a street named after him in Biggin Hill. It's appalling really."
The fourth plinth displays contemporary art works by European artists.
Reports from the Daily Telegraph said that Mr Smith, the chief executive of Tullett Prebon, a London City trading house, had agreed to pay more than $240,000 for a permanent statue acceptable to "ordinary Londoners" of the neglected hero.
Support for a statue has also come from London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson.
Incumbent mayor Ken Livingstone is yet to comment on the proposal.
Credited for rescuing England from its darkest hour, Sir Keith was Air Chief Marshall in charge of the air defence of London and Southeast England in 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain.
Sir Keith was born in Thames in 1892 and served as an Anzac in Gallipoli before joining the British Army and being wounded on the Somme.
He then joined the Royal Flying Corps and was the highest scoring ace in his squadron, receiving the Military Cross and bar, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.
After the war he returned to New Zealand, where he served on the Auckland City Council.
He died in 1975, aged 82.
- ROTORUA DAILY POST
