Thanks a million!
Seven-figure donation to campaign for D-Day memorial honouring 22,000 killed in Normandy takes total to £1.5m
CAMPAIGNERS for a memorial to more than 22,000 British servicemen who fell in the liberation of France were jubilant yesterday as the appeal – backed by the Daily Mail and its readers – received its largest single donation to date: a magnificent £1million.
As a result, the memorial fund has now reached a grand total of £1.5million.
And like those Allied forces landing on the Normandy beaches in 1944, this fund just keeps on going.
Speaking on behalf of the surviving Normandy veterans and the families of those who gave their lives, George Batts, patron of the Normandy Memorial Trust, told the Mail: ‘Bloody marvellous! This is just fantastic.’
Yesterday’s donation of £1million was received from the family foundation of Michael Spencer, the financier and businessman.
It followed a pledge of £250,000 from another (as yet unnamed) philanthropist, matching the £250,000 already given by generous Mail readers.
Mr Batts and his comrades have been urgently trying to raise the £9million needed to complete the spectacular memorial planned for a panoramic site overlooking the beaches where thousands of British troops stormed ashore on June 6, 1944 – D-Day.
A total of 22,442 sailors, soldiers, airmen and medical staff under British command were killed in the relentlessly violent 77-day battle which followed the landings. Yet Britain remains the only Allied nation without a national memorial to its fallen in Normandy.
With the 75th anniversary of the greatest assault in history fast approaching, the dwindling band of liberators are determined to Generosity: Michael Spencer make amends. Their prospects have been greatly improved by the response of Mail readers and of philanthropists like Mr Spencer.
‘I am so pleased and proud that my family is supporting this immensely important national monument,’ he said last night.
‘The men who gave their lives on D-Day ensured the freedom of Europe and all our freedoms.
‘Seventy-five years later, it is completely right that the nation remembers and thanks them and marks their sacrifice by supporting the Normandy Memorial Trust. It is very gratifying that the Daily Mail has backed the fundraising campaign with such passion and commitment and that their readers have so far donated a wonderful £250,000 towards the memorial. My hope is that still more readers will give generously and that others will follow my family’s lead.’
With £7.5million still required, the trustees are keen to build on the great momentum generated by this latest outpouring of support. Last night the trust’s chairman, Lord Ricketts, urged more people to follow suit.
‘Michael Spencer and the Daily Mail’s readers have led the way,’ said the former diplomat. ‘We are enormously grateful for their generosity. We hope that others will now help us to create a truly fitting memorial to the 22,442 men and women who did not make it home in the summer of 1944. We owe them so much.’ The memorial will stand on more than 50 acres of open land purchased by the trust at Ver-sur-Mer.
THE site stands above Gold Beach at the heart of what was the British sector. It also overlooks the remains of the great Mulberry harbour defences which protected the Allied beachhead.
It will be engraved with the names of every one of those who gave their lives in the liberation, whether they died in battle or in the many tragic accidents of war which accompanied the most ambitious operation in our military history.
There will also be a separate memorial to the estimated 20,000 French civilians who lost their lives in the liberation. In the five weeks since the start of the campaign, the trustees and veterans have been bowled over not just by the donations of every size but also by the messages and letters accompanying them.
Many have donated in memory of a much-loved father, brother or uncle who made the ultimate sacrifice. Others have given in memory of a loved one who set sail for Normandy but did make it home. ‘If my father had not survived Sword Beach, I would not be here today,’ wrote one pensioner – ‘70 years young’ – from Ayrshire, enclosing a donation of £50. ‘I hope it helps.’
It all helps. And there are just under three months to go before the veterans gather on D-Day dawn itself to inaugurate the first phase of this much-needed tribute to those we can never fully repay.